The Chinese At Home

OR

THE MAN OF TONG AND HIS LAND

By

f. DYER BALL, m.r.a.s.

M. CHINA iiK.R.A.S., ETC.

CiTJil St'ivicc ( retii cd )

AurnoK OF “ rn[N('.s chinf^k/’ “the cei.esIiai and his religion”

SECOND IMPRESSION

lX)NDi)N

THE RIHJGIOUS I'RTCI' SUCIKrV

4 Bouveril Su'reet; <!<: 65 St. I'aul’s Churchyard, KA '

1912

THE CHINESE AT HOME

CONTEMTS

PAGE

PREFACE . . . « ® . xi

CHAPTER

I. THE MIDDLE KINGDOM . ^ * .1

IL THE BLACK-HAIRED RACE . .12

in. THE LIFE OF A DEAD CHINAMAN « . 21

IV. WIND AND WATER, OR FUNG-SHUI ^ . 32

V. THE MUCH-MARRIED CHINAMAN . .45

VI. JOHN CHINAMAN ABROAD . « . 6l

VII. JOHN CHINAMAN^S LITTLE ONES « , 72

vm. THE PAST OF JOHN CHINAMAN . . .86

IX. THE MANDARIN . . „ , .99

X. LAW AND ORDER . . . .116

XL THE DIVERSE TONGUES OF JOHN CHINAMAN . I29
XIL THE DRUG : FOREIGN DIRT . . . I44

XIIL WHAT JOHN CHINAMAN EATS AND DRINKS . I58
XIV. JOHN CHINAMAN^S DOCTORS . , , I72

XV. WHAT JOHN CHINAMAN READS . . . 185

vii

Contents

CHAPTER

PAGE

XVL

JOHN CHINAMAN AFLOAT

•

• 199

XVII.

#

HOW JOHN CHINAMAN TRAVELS ON

LAND

. 212

XVIIL

HOW JOHN CHINAMAN DRESSES

•

• 22s

XIX.

THE CARE OF THE MINUTE

• 239

XX.

THE YELLOW PERIL

fli

• 252

XXI.

JOHN CHINAMAN AT SCHOOL

•

. 262

XXII.

JOHN CHINAMAN OUT OF DOORS

• 279

XXIIL

JOHN CHINAMAN INDOORS

«

• 297

XXIV.

JOHN CHINAMAN AT WORK

*

. 316

XXV.

WHAT JOHN CHINAMAN BELIEVES

•

• 331

XXVI.

NEW LIFE IN OLD CHINA

• 342

XXVII.

WHAT MISSIONARIES HAVE DONE

FOR

JOHN

CHINAMAN

' 355

INDEX ....

.

• 363

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

IN COLOUR

THE LITTLE ORPHAN ROCK IN THE YANG TSZ . Frontispiece

FACING PAGE

BARBER . . . . . . .16

A FEMALE ACROBAT . . . , . I32

A BLIND SINGING GIRL AND DUENNA , , .192

A PERFORMING MONKEY. . . . . 2 l 6

A BLIND MERCHANT 286

A PHYSIOGNOMIST ..... 340

IN BLACK AND WHITE

A CHINESE WATERWAY AND BRIDGE . . .2

BRAIDING THE QUEUE . . . . .13

A FAMILY GROUP OF THREE GENERATIONS . . 46

A BRIDAL PROCESSION . . . . . c;i

IX

List of Illustrations

FACING PAGE

A MILITARY MANDARIN AND WIFE , . *54

A FAMILY GROUP , • ^ . ,72

A FAMILY JAUNT . . ^ , .72

THREE DISTINGUISHED MANDARINS * . .100

ROOM IN governor’s YAMEN . , , 100

SHANGHAI : foreign MARKET . « . . 158

EATING RICE . . . . * .158

THREE WELL-DRESSED LADIES AND SERVANT . . 235

A CHINESE CROWD AT AN OUT-OF-DOORS THEATRE . 281

CHINESE GENTLEMAN’S GARDEN . , . 288

THE DRAGON PROCESSION .... 29S

THE GUEST HALL IN A CHINESE GENTLEMAN’S HOUSE,

HONG KONG ..... 304

A GAMBLING HOUSE . , « -314

THE CHINESE BARROW ” . . » . 314

SHANGHAI CITY TEMPLE * » . . 338

STREET SCENE : PEKING « ^ . .349

STREET SCENE : MOUKDEN . t » . 349

X

PREFACE

T he Tong (or Tang) Dynasty was so splendid
a period in the annals of China that millions
in the south of that land glory in the name of
Men of Tong. In the north another illustrious
dynasty has likewise bestowed its name on other
millions, who commemorate its bright annals by
taking the name of Men of Han.

The Han is noted chiefly amongst a literary
people, such as the Chinese, as the epoch of the
renaissance of their literature ; while the Tong,
also renowned for its literary excellence, has been
compared to our Elizabethan age of literature.

These two periods of China’s history were not
only renowned for literature : the Han, the reign
of whose sovereigns extended from B.C. 206 to
A.D. 25, was a glorious epoch, whether looked
at from a literary, historical, military, commercial,
or an artistic point of view ; and it was very
fitting that its name should be used to designate
its sons, as it was the formative period of
Chinese polity and institutions, official and formal.

Equally fitting was it that, the people of the
southern portion of the Empire should appropriate
the title of another great dynasty as a name for

xi

Preface

themselves ; for it was during the Tong Dynasty
(a.D. 618-908) that they, who had been con-
quered before, were now completely civilised and
incorporated into the Chinese race. Thus they
have immortalised this most illustrious period of
Chinese history and kept its memory ever fragrant
during many cycles of Cathay, while at the same
time their pride has been gratified by this con-
tinual reminder in their name of the glories of
a wondrous past.

The author has dwelt amongst these Men of
Tong for more than forty-six years ; he has studied
their manners, customs, languages, thoughts ; he
has seen their old-world civilisation, which seemed
to have secured for itself an indefinite if not eternal
future with this conservative people, one of the
most conservative on the face of the earth ; and
he has seen the bursting of the iron bonds of
this old-time life, and the commencement of a
new era of progress. The vision of an indefinite
future perpetuating a never-changing order of
things, death-like and stagnant, has changed into
a living, active present, which presages good for
the new future.

Now that he has left all these changing scenes^
in the quiet of English pursuits he has found a
pleasure in describing some of the many phases
of Chinese life ; and he hopes his readers will
have an equal pleasure in the perusal of these
pages .

His thanks are due to his wife for the great
xii

Preface

assistance she rendered in the final preparation of
the book for the press ; to the Rev. G. H. Bond-
field, agent of the British and Foreign Bible Society
in China ; and to the Rev. A. R. Buckland, M.A.,
Secretary of the Religious Tract Society, for assist-
ance in the preparation of the last chapter ; to
the latter Society also for the use of all the photo-
graphs appearing in the book with the exception
of one, that of the dragon procession.

The unique coloured illustrations, with the one
exception of the Little Orphan Rock, which is from
a photograph, are exact reproductions of Chinese
paintings.

J. DYER BALL.

Hadley Wood.

1911.

THE CHINESE AT HOME

CHAPTER I

The Middle Kingdom

I S it possible by a few broad strokes to picture
what is connoted by the terms China and the
Chinese ; to summarise and compress in a few
sentences and in general terms a description of
the physical features of the country, the charac-
teristics of the people, and their mental attitude?
The task is a well-nigh impossible one, yet if
impracticable, a few bold touches may whet the
appetite for a fuller description in the following
pages, when different aspects of Chinese life will
come under review.

China has two of the world’s greatest and most
famous rivers — the Child of the Ocean (Yang Tsz
Kiang) and the Yellow River — with hosts of other
rivers so numerous as to be insignificant and com-
paratively unknown in the Western world, though
scores of them would rank in importance and size
with some of the most famous waterways in the

X

The Middle Kingdom

West, It has mountain ranges^ magnificent in their
grandeur and scenery, rivalling any to be found
in Great Britain or Ireland. It has immense
plains, filled with a teeming population, and co-
equal in extent with whole countries in Europe.
It has thousands of cities, great and small ; vast
hives of human workers, replete with life and
vigour ; enormous provinces, each embracing
scores and hundreds of districts or counties ;
fleets of junks, fishing-craft, sea-going vessels,
and river-boats, in such numbers that no one has
ever totalled the grand mass, almost innumerable
as they are, to be found at every seaport and
each inland riverine or lacustrine city, town, or
village. No country can compare with China for
natural facilities of inland navigation. Its coast-
line winds in and out, giving way in bays and
gaining again in promontories, now merely holding
its own, now nearly cut off at some peninsula,
and then almost losing itself in the delta of some
great river. Many small islands stud the Yellow
and China Seas, the estuaries of the rivers and
the lakes. Some are sacred with religious associa-
tions, as Pu To, the haunt of Buddhist temples,
or the Little Orphan, in the Yang Tsz. Lakes
there are, not a few, amongst which the palm
must be assigned to the Tung Ting (two hundred
miles in circumference) and the picturesque Po
Yang (ninety miles long by twenty broad).

Such, then, in a few sentences, is China, form-
ing one of the most extensive dominions ever

2

Early Civilisation

All round China were barbarians. Surely, if
the ancient Greeks had a right to call other nations
by what is now considered an opprobrious epithet,
the Chinese had an excuse for fastening such a
term on their neighbours, who were inferior to
them in civilisation, knowledge, literature, handi-
crafts, and who further, on this account, derived
the groundwork of their literature — written lan-
guage in some cases — ^and civilisation from the
great nation which lay in the centre of their
world.

The Middle Kingdom radiated its light abroad
to what seemed in the olden days the uttermost
parts of the earth, and sent its armies north, south,
and west, and even essayed to cross the ocean to
carry its victorious banners to success — those
banners which in most of the conflicts with its
neighbours led the way to conquering hosts.

This name, the Middle Kingdom, taking its rise
in ancient times from a state surrounded by others,
has typified in its better later-day rendering of the
Central Empire, the central position of the Celes-
tial Empire in Eastern Asia, and also, as outlined
above, the dentre of light and influence during
many centuries in the past. The light of civilisa-
tion has touched the Land of the Rising Sun
(Japan), which in its turn is now repaying, by the
lead it is taking, the Empire to which it is indebted
for so much.

This mighty Empire had been in the past self-
centred to a very great extent. Her vast dominions

5 B

The Middle Kingdom

have^ with their almost boundless resources, pro-
vided well for nearly all wants, and nearly every
wish of her people has been gratified. Is it food
that is required for her teeming population? The
myriads of tiny rice-fields lying along the banks of
rivers, and climbing the hill -sides with their waving
harvests ripening into golden grain under the fierce
tropical sun of the south, feed the majority of
her peoples, while wheat and millet in the north
provide food for the almost starving millions who
in north or south or east or west, if a crop fails,
find themselves at once at Death’s door.

To give variety to what might be considered a
monotonous diet, numerous vegetables are assidu-
ously cultivated by the ubiquitous market -gardener,
whose ceaseless toil is rewarded by a great variety
of greenstufifs and roots. Under the different climes
of China a varied fruit crop is produced, as her
ample dominions range from the cold north to the
sunny south — chestnuts, walnuts, peaches, plums,
and pears, as well as oranges, pumeloes, custard-
apples, and many others.

To add to the delights of the table, pigs wallow
in the mire in every village street, and in poor
men’s houses are as often to be found a;s in
Paddy’s, burrowing under table and bed, while
chickens are so common as to be even kept by
the dwellers on the water in their boats. If his
conscience does not forbid him, an occasional relish
of beef may be enjoyed with the Chinaman’s frugal
meal. Nature also provides him fish from the

6

Nature’s Provision

rivers that drain his lands, and any one may catch
them by any device he likes anywhere and every-
where, by day or night, without let or hindrance
or fee.

Not content with the, fish which Nature gives
him free, man further provides for his tastes by
carefully rearing pond fish in those artificially con-
structed adjuncts to nearly every village. More-
over, the harvests of the fields are supplemented
by an aftermath of finny tribes, which, introduced
into the rice-fields, have grown with the grain,
and (swimming amongst the stalks as these slowly
shoot out of the water) ripen with its fulness of
ear, so as to be fit to be a savoury dish to accom-
pany the cooked rice on the tables of those who
have thus providently prepared both ready for
future needs. At the same time the harvest of
the sea has been reaped by fishermen, who have
braved the storm and typhoon to net their gains
from the tossing ridges of the briny waves.

Is it clothing that is wanted? The silkworm
spins John Chinaman’s silk for him ; the cotton-
plant furnishes material for his jacket and trousers,
and the wild beasts their fur, and even the un-
yeaned lamb gives its skin to keep the wealthy
warm. For centuries everything needed for cloth-
ing he has been able to find in his own land.

Is it fuel that is required? Coal is to be found
in abundance, though not so largely employed as
by Western nations. Forests, by improvident
felling, have receded to the remoter parts of the

7

The Middle Kingdom

country, but they still yield charcoal and firewood
and building materials in abundance. Minerals
of almost every kind abound, and are largely used
in arts and manufactures.

So well provided thus in every respect is John
Chinaman that he has hitherto needed but little
from others to satisfy his wants or needs.

As to things that more concern the mind j the
range of literature has till recently satisfied all
his mental cravings, so extensive it is, and so
wide its ramifications. Trained within certain
limits, John Chinaman has not cared, till of late,
to range beyond these limitations, and so superior
to all around him was what wa:s provided for
his mental culture in his own land, that only
present-day enlightenment has opened his eyes
to the superiority of much of Western literature.

The government of this mighty Empire has been
elaborated by the people’s pwn unaided efforts,
though doubtless based on ancient ideas which
may have been brought with the first arrivals when
they settled in their future home ; and admirably
adapted it has been for an Oriental race, and
infinitely superior it is to that of some of the
other Eastern nations, while the civilisation of the
people has developed, but little touched or affected
by other races.

As regards religion, the nation has clung
tenaciously to its own beliefs through long ages,
though largely availing itself of other faiths, some
of them' in combination with its own. Its basic

8

A Self-sufficient Land

elements are those of primeval times, such as
ancestor worship, &c., on which a superstructure
of ethics has been imposed, while, as heroes were
deified, a hierarchy of state gods has been added.
Blended with this in the native mind has been a
system of ethics styled Confucianism. All this
one may describe as purely Chinese, to which
may also be added the mysticism of Lao Tsz, the
founder of Taoism, whose mind may have received
some enlightenment from the West.

The distinctly foreign element came in with the
introduction of Buddhism from India, which,
though decidedly foreign, has had a Chinese
impress fixed on it, and has been adapted to the
requirements of the Celestial race. The latter-
day idolatrous Buddhism overshadowed Taoism,
which degenerated into gross superstition, and
Chinese-like again borrowed from Buddhism idols
and beliefs, the result being that the Chinese mind
has taken over this mass of beliefs, and formed
an amalgam, a sort of mechanical combination
of all, which serves for religion.

To summarise : John Chinaman, take it all in
all, in the past, with but few exceptions, has found
in his own Middle Kingdom all his wants
supplied, as far as material conditions ai'e con-
cerned ; and, as regards the kingdom of his
mind, his own country’s sages and scholars have
also supplied his mental diet, clothed his thoughts
in fitting speech, and crystallised them into
literature.

9

The Middle Kingdom

In the Middle Ages, when the celebrated
Venetian traveller Marco Polo penetrated to the
uttermost parts of the world, his journey lay
through Central Asia, This seemed the most easy
way of approach to those old-time travellers,
though others, buffeted by many seas in their frail
craft, braved a course which brought them finally
to the southern shores of China.

In later days this last was the regular route
taken by the East Indiamen, the merchant ships
in the employ of the old East India Company,
and in still later days by the New York tea-
clippers. This course, as far as the Eastern
world is concerned, is still adhered to by many
a traveller in the present day ; but the Suez Canal
has lessened the voyage from one of three to five
months round the Cape, to one of five weeks, or
less than a month if the steamer is joined at
France or Italy.

Our American cousins have laid iron tracks
across their continent, so as to reach China by
the Western Ocean— scarce ever ploughed before
the last hundred years — and by this route arrive
at the centre of the China coast at Shanghai.

Last of all, the Siberian and Manchurian Rail-
ways enable those who so desire to journey from
Europe to the north of China in twelve or fourteen
days ; and, when the line is doubled, the time
may even be shorter. Thus the quickest way now
is what was the longest way a short time since,
and is almost a reverting to the old road to
this Empire.

10

The Wandering Chinaman

In ancient times the dwellers in the Middle
Kingdom journeyed in their clumsy, lumbering
junks far towards what was to them the utter-
most parts of the earth — to the Persian Gulf, to
the Arabian Sea and neighbouring countries. Then
these adventurous voyages ceased, and next the
stranger came to explore the mystic land of
Cathay and settle on its borders, or rather coa^st-
line, and, as the years rolled on, in ever-increasing
numbers. Finally, the tide of emigration set ill,
when John Chinaman began to people some of
the waste places of the earth, and transform them
by his skill and industry into lands producing
wealth and valuable colonies. Gradually learning
that all knowledge, civilisation, learning, and
wisdom are not centred in the Middle Kingdom,
students are flocking now to the Lands of the
West, to acquire what they find is still wanting
in their own highly -favoured land.

II

CHAPTER II

The Black-haired Race

T he Black -haired Race is a most fitting
descriptive term for the people of China,
who, to a man, have long, lank, coarse, black hair.
One would infer that originally this was not the
case. The little children have a brown shade
in their locks, which also do not appear so coarse
as when childhood has changed to manhood. This
lighter shade is especially noticeable when the
sunlight shines directly on their baby heads. The
black colour has, however, been the national dis-
tinguishing trait from the dawn of history, and
it differentiated them from any blonde race which
may have peopled Central Asia. Older Chinese
myths and traditions to this effect receive possibly
some support from this designation ; for were
there no other race known to the ancient Chinese
than their own, and were there no others with
light hair, and thus different from theirs, one can
scarcely suppose this name would have been
applied to themselves by themselves.

12

BRAIDING THE QUEUE.

The Queue and Its Care

Yet for three centuries past most of this black
shock of hair has been shaved off the head, a
round patch only being allowed to grow on the
top and the back of the head. This hair is
encouraged to grow as long as possible, and is
braided into a queue. This custom is a result
of the Manchu conquest of China, for the victors
made it a sign of subjugation that their newly-
acquired subjects should conform to their fashions
in this respect. The great esteem in which the
Tartars held the horse was doubtless the reason
for the adoption of this curious style of wearing
the hair.

So insistent were these seventeenth-century con-
querors of the Chinese on the ra2or being applied
to the top of the head (there is little use for it
elsewhere), that failure to conform was cause
enough for the wearer to lose his head.

To the European in China the care bestowed
on their long hair by Chinese men is one of the
most curious of sights. No hair-brushes are used,
but the hair is well combed out, as a rule, every
day. It is difficult at first to think that these
long tresses, three or four feet or more in length,
belong to a' man. Carefully combed out by him-
self or the barber, the hair is plaited into a long
queue, in the common style of three strands, and
eked out in length still further by a piece of
cord till it reaches the knees or heels, and swings
and sways with every motion of the body.
Chaucer, in the “ Knight’s Tale,” might be de-

13

The Black-haired Race

scribing the Chinese queue ; for all that is
required is to substitute black for yellow, and
change “ her ” to “ his ” in the lines —

Her yellow hair was braided in a tresse
Behinde her backe, a yarde longe, I guesse.”

Thus suspended down the back the queue is apt
to be in the way when the wea,rer is at work.
It is then rolled into a knot on the back of the
head or neck, or loosely coiled round the head
or shoulders, and thus it is out of the way. This
is the equivalent of our Western condition of being-
in one’s shirt-sleeves, and the workman or servant
hastens to uncoil and let the queue down when
coming into the presence of his superior or master.
When the owner is putting on his outer robe the
queue has, of course, to be pulled out, as it lies
down the back of the inner garment.

The cyclist brings the end of his queue round
from his back, and tucks it into his breast pocket
or the top of his leggings, to prevent it being
entangled in his back wheel. If the queue be
caught in machinery, the poor Chinaman may
be scalped.

One of the most comical sights the author has
ever seen was a row of Chinese sitting in a hill
tramcar in Hong Kong. As the tram went up the
hill at a steep slope of one foot in two, all the
queues hung out behind the wearers at an angle
of 45'"'

These queues are the cause of the abundance

14

The Beard and Moustache

of the barbers’ shops and itinerant barbers found
in China. In the extreme south of China these
men are invariably Hakkas.^ The calling of a
barber is one of the most despised in China. Not
until the third generation can the descendant of
one be allowed to compete at the Civil Service
Examinations. The other classes which share with
the barber his exclusion from the nation’s literary
contests are actors, yamen runners, and slaves.

The Chinaman’s beard gives him but little
trouble. His anxiety is rather the want of it ;
for, like many Asiatics, his hair, except on the top
of his head, is scanty in growth, and it is well-nigh
impossible for him to grow a full beard. This
may account for the origin of the custom, which
has the force of law, of no one growing a beard
till he is forty-five years of age. At that age the
cultivation of a moustache is permitted. This
consists, as a rule, of a few stiff hairs, forming
a sparse fringe over his mouth. So proud is the
gentleman of his moustache that he may often
be seen carrying a tiny bone comb, hanging to a
button of his coat. This he passes through the
scanty hairs every now and then in public with as
much nonchalance as ^ if he were simply stroking

* Hakkas constitute the latest immigrants in the southern
parts. They flowed into these portions of the land from the
central provinces of the Empire. They were the last wave which
followed the natural law that set the tide flowing from the north.
This, during the last four thousand years or moi‘c, resulted in the
gradual populating of the Empire from the northern regions in
which the earliest arrivals in their new home settled,

15

The Black-haired Race

his moustkche, as the Chinese old man is fond
of stroking his grey beard.

Some twenty years or so later, the Chinaman
is allowed still more liberty, and he essays to
grow what by courtesy is termed a beard. It
consists of a scanty covering for the chin, scarcely
extending to his cheeks. As to whiskers, a few
tufts of long hairs may stand for them; but very
often Nature is satisfied with what has already
been done, and attempts no more in the way of
hair on John Chinaman’s face.

Should lie chance, however, to be favoured
anywhere on his face with a mole which produces
a few hairs, these are allowed to stick out, even if
he has not arrived at the proper age to grow a
moustache or beard. Thus tolerated, they look
very odd on the bare shaven expanse of his broad
face.

The barbers are quite an institution in China.
Barbers’ shops are open to the street— as, indeed,
are nearly all the shops — and the whole operation
of shaving, with the general mysteries of the trade,
is revealed to the passer-by. No soap is used
in shaving, but hot water is rubbed over the head
and face, and then the razor is applied.

How the Chinaman stands the torture of a
scrape without the mollifying influence of soap is
a mystery to an Englishman. One of the latter
described to the author a shave he experienced
d. ta ChinoiSy and the agony he underwent must
have bben considerable.

i6

A HARIJKR

Toilet Enormities

Of recbnt years the more convenient foreign
razor has come into fashion; but previously the
awkward wedge-shaped Chinese razor, heavy and
thick at the back, and coming to the necessary
edge at the front, was employed.

No paper is wasted on the operation, but the
falling hairs are caught in a small tray. Hair-
cutting is unnecessary, as what is not wanted is
shaved clean off, and what is left is encouraged
to grow to its full length. If the patient requires
it, the delicate operation of cleaning out the eyes
and ears is also undertaken. This is done with
tiny brushes and instruments, to the no little
eventual detriment of both eyes and ears. For
the barber probes into the depths of the ears,
with no knowledge of their intricate nature, and,
with equal if not greater ignorance of the still
more tender and delicate construction of the eyes,
proceeds to turn the lids over and clean their
surfaces. This produces redness and irritation,
which is thought to be a sign that another visit
is required to the untrained surgeon, with the result
that often the eyesight is ruined. Similar results
ensue to the ear, from the ruthless penetration into
its inner passages.

Another practice that the Chinaman is very fond
of having his surgeon- barber perform on him is
“ pounding the bones ” for aches and pains. The
barber executes a tattoo on the back, or any other
part of the human frame with his closed fists,
to the delight of the sufferer.

17

The Black-haired Race

The rapid growth of the hair on the parts that
are shaven produces a rank crop, and this has
to be kept down by repeated visits to the barber.
The frequency, of these depends on the position a
man occupies in society and on his purse. Excep-
tion must be made in the case of mourning, when
for weeks and months the head and face of the
Chinaman presents a hideous spectacle, as all hair
is allowed to grow then, till the period of mourn-
ing is over. To add to this unsightly spectacle,
instead of the red or black cord in the queue, blue
in half or slight mourning, is worn in the south
of China, and white in deep mourning. This,
added to the black, coarse, lank hair sticking up
in short bristles, is most ghastly.

The Chinese calendar is full of lucky and
unlucky days; consequently there are days when
it is well to shave, and days when it is well to
refrain from shaving; and due regard must be
paid to these by the Chinaman who would avoid
disaster.

The price differs for a shave in different parts
of the country, but a halfpenny in some places
is a reasonable charge for the operation. Even
this, or less, seems to be beyond the means of
the beggar, who doubtless also thinks that, added
to his rags and tatters, a' tangled mass of coarse,
matted hair is more likely to draw a cash from
the charitable.

The strangest sight is to see a whole nation in
mourning, and therefore unshorn. This happens

i8

Woman and Her Coiffure

when the Emperor dies. Timely notice is gener-
ally given before the official notice of this mourning
is promulgated, so that every one goes to the
barber, and gets a clean head, to start on the
long period of abstention.

The women allow their hair to grow all over
the head. In girlhood it is plaited into a queue
which hangs down the back; though of late years
some of the younger women have worn their hair
in a little knot at the side of the head, where it
looks very peculiar.

The coiffure into which the married women bind
their hair varies much with the place, the fashion,
and the position of the wearer. As a rule, the
hair is plastered down over the head with a
gelatinous gum made by soaking the shavings of
a certain tree in water. This shows off the
contour of the head to advantage. With Can-
tonese working -women, or those of a lower order
of society, the hair is often made into a little knob
at the back of the head. This is varied by others,
and sometimes by those a little higher in the social
scale, by an approach to two wings at the sides
of the head, and at the back to what looks like
the handle of a teapot. This style was worn by
the most fashionable some fifty years ago in a
very e.xaggerated form. A quieter mode now
prevails, though eccentricities reveal themselves
every now and then. The styles differ widely in
different districts of the country, the author having
seen in Soo-Chow long love -locks hanging down
the sides of the cheeks.

19

The Black-haired Race

Little boys often have all the hair shaved off, or
sometimes it is left growing, and tied into two
tufts on the sides of the head. When a clean poll
is the boy’s style, then he is dubbed, in pleasant
badinage^ “ monk,” as the Buddhist priests or
monks have all the hair shaven off their heads.

When the more elaborate way of dressing the
hair is in favour, the coiffure has to last for
several days. At night the woman sleeps with
the back of the neck on a hard earthen or bamboo
or softer leather pillow, for fear of disarranging
what has taken much art, labour, and time to
accomplish. No frames or pads are used by the
women in doing up the hair, nor is false hair
employed, except when absolutely necessary to hide
baldness. No hair-brushes are used; the hair is
combed. The combs are generally of wood.

Most women apply a scent, which has rather an
unpleasant odour, to the hair ; but it must be liked
by the Chinese, though the author has come across
one Chinese gentleman who thought it disagree-
able. The blind singing-girls have their back
hair done into a long arrangement, which is
stiffened, so that it sticks straight down the back
for about a foot.

20

CHAPTER III

The Life of a Dead Chinaman

I T may well be said of the Chinese, “ The dead
ye have always with you.” Beyond the
suburbs of the living- cities, a vast necropolis in
every case is to be found, rivalling, in the number
of its inhabitants, the living population which has
supplied for scores of years and centuries the future
inmates for its silent dwellings.

In China, strange in so many of its customs
and so many of its ideas, the dead rule the living
in thought; they rule them in custom; they rule
them throughout their lives, by fear and the dread
of calamity, if everything is not done to propitiate
•them—an obsession at times too awful for words.

The paradoxical reigns supreme in Chinese life,
and it is not seldom the case that an individual
insignificant in life becomes influential by ceasing
to live. Near Chao Chow Fu there is an imposing
grave, which one passes on the road to the city.
A double row of animals leads up to it. It seems
that originally this was only an ordinary grave,
with nothing special to mark it out as different

21 c

The Life of a Dead Chinaman

from the hundreds that lie on the hill-side or plain,
“ where heaves the turf in many a m'ould’ring,
heap/’ Now it is sought by many who, when he
was alive, would not have given a passing thought
to the humble and insignificant individual whose
body sleeps in this narrow cell. Now, according
to popular belief, his hands sway the course of
destiny, in response to those who have known how
to provide for his posthumous comfort by placing
his grave in a good position, in fact, as governed
by the laws of fiing-shui.

The Chinese have a proverb that “ The most
important thing in life is to be buried well.” A
new idea is, in this connection, imported into the
old Hebrew saying, that the day of death is better
than the day of one’s birth ” (Ecclesiastes vii. i).

The most of us think one soul is quite enough to
look after. The Chinaman has three — at least he
believes he has — besides seven animal spirits, all
centred in his being. A dissolution occurs on his
demise, and his souls are scattered. One goes to
the future world to receive the rewards or punish-
ments due for the deeds done in the body, one
remains at the grave, and one goes into the
ancestral tablet. This last is an article made of
several pieces of wood, fitted together, on the
outside and inside of which are written the names,
titles, and dates of birth and death of the deceased.
The tablet is set up, among wealthy and large
families and clans, in the ancestral hall.

This hall is a building forming a general
22

The Soul, the Man, and the Clan

rendezvous for the family, and a centre for the
transaction of business pertaining to the fatnily
or clan. Large estates are sometimes held in
trust for the good of all belonging to the
family, and financial considerations bind to-
gether the scattered members of the clan, as
well as ties of kindred. To be expelled from* the
clan is felt to be a keen disgrace ; and this
ostracism carries with it the penalty of being cut
off from all the privileges appertaining to the
clan — help in time of need, sustenance in old age,
support in difficulty, and fellowship and friendship.

In this clanship and in the ancestor worship
lies the stronghold of the old system. It is a com-
paratively easy matter to give up the ordinary
worship of idols ; that is not engrained in the
Chinaman’s nature. But — even if he sees the
absurdity of a tripartite soul, coexistent and re-
quiring separate habitations when the body, which
was the common lodging-house of all, has become
uninhabitable by the effluxion of time and decay —
nevertheless, with what one writer has described as
the turbidity of the Chinese mind, he accepts it
and clings to it. What ho^ds him with a firmer
grip than mere faith in it is a knowledge of the
dire consequences which would ensue, were he to
act upon a belief in the absurdity of the whole
matter. The excommunication from his clan is
so serious a thing that he hesitates to make himself
an outcast. With no old age pension or poor-
house to fall back upon, if he goes ; and with the

^3

Tlie Life of a Dead Chinaman

glatoour and substantial results accruing from
office and literary distinction before him if he stays^,
the consequences of revolt are serious enough.
If the conscience does not hold supreme sway
over his being, principles are apt to go by the
board.

Filial piety is supposed to be the motive power
for the reverence of the dead. Not for a moment
would the author deny this virtue as a factor in
Chinese ancestral worship ; but, after all that can
be said for this aspect of the case, it still remains
that one of the chief and most potent causes of
the reverence and worship of the dead in China is
fear of what might result from' not propitiating
the departed spirits.

Another contributory cause is “ olo custom,”
which rules with stronger sway in the East than in
the West.

To understand the origin of this curious cult, we
must go back to the infancy of nations. Chris-
tianity,^ with the higher civilisation it has brought
with it, has caused us to leave such things behind ;
for, nations as well as man when in the child state
spake as a child, understood as a child, and thought
as a child. China, with its reverence for the dead
past, with its ultra-conservatism, with its rigid
adherence to the custom's sanctioned by antiquity,
has clung to ancestor worship, which most of the
other nations of the world have long grown out of.

But though ancestor Worship be a survival of
the most primitive times, a relic of early religion,

24

A Supreme Duty

with the Chinese it is at the root of all things ; it
permeates nearly everything. It is so woven into
the warp and woof of human existence in the Far
East that it even seems to be an integral part of
the human being. Follow up any subject to its
origin, to its present motive force, to its raison
d^etrCy and the chances are that lying hidden at the
root of the matter is ancestor worship. From' the
Emperor on his throne down to the meanest of his
subjects, the influence of this cult makes itself
felt in ways the most incomprehensible to one
who has been brought up and lived under totally
different conditions on the other side of the globe.

Of late years a succession of minors has
ascended the throne in China. Ancestral worship
is the cause of this ; for, it would never do for
the new monarch, who has to worship his pre-
decessor, to perfoi*m the ancestral rites in honour
of one younger than himself.

Not seldom the sentence passed on some prisoner
is light, as compared with the just reward for his
crimes laid down in the statute-book ; and why?
Because ancestral worship puts in a more power-
ful plea for, mitigation of sentence than any other
circumstances which law could take cognisance of,
or lawyers could think of, in a country where
lawyers as such are unknown. All that is neces-
sary is that the culprit claim to be the one w^ho
should offer the sacrifices to the man,es of his
deceased parents.

This custom affects the eldest son, or, more

25

The Life of a Dead Chinaniaii

especially;, an only son. The plea of being the only
son, and consequently the only support of an aged
mother, is constantly advanced in Hong Kong
courts of justice. It receives the scant attention
ouil customs accord to such a reason for the
mitigation of sentence or for an unqualified pardon.
In a Chinese court, it would, if proved true, be
acted on. The ultimate cause of many a social
custom, rule of etiquette, code of action, is found
to be based on this principle ; and most rigid is
the conformity required to its minutest maxims,
upon which to a large extent the fabric of society
is based.

It is absolutely necessary, for example, that a
man have a son to perform' the pious rites for
him ; hence, from the Chinese point of view, a
sufficient reason for polygamy. If, after marriage,
no infant of the required sex aippears to perform
the sacrifices and offer the prayers to the father,
when deceased, which is the prerogative of the
eldest son, then a concubine or secondary wife, or
subintrodacta mulier^ is procured, to fulfil the hopes
of every married man. For this reason nearly
every man, with the rarest exception, is married in
China, and nearly every woman too. Should the
second wife thus taken only increase the family by
daughters, or should she prove childless, a third
wife is added, and so on till the desired end is
attained. Failing all issue, a relative may be
adopted, to fulfil the functions of a son. If this
be impossible, an outsider may be taken in to fill

26

The Three Souls

the place of a son. Here, then, is the chief reason
for the semi-legalised concubinage in vogue in
China.

Again, the tie that binds the wandering Celestial
to his homeland is ancestral worship ; nor is the
tie broken by death. In life he returns, if possible,
from distant climes to worship at the tombs, and
see his ancient mother, and incidentally his wife,
who perhaps has been married to him in his
absence. At death his coffined bones are returned
to be buried at his ancestral home, where due
reverence may be paid to his spirits, for their good
and that of his descendants. Long and tedious arc
the journeys of these sacred remains from one end
of the Empire to the other, so that, though a man
may have died far from’ home, his remains shall
not be absent from their right resting-place at
last. I

If a Chinaman finds three souls a handful, what
must his descendants feel with his three on their
hands 1 The seven animal spirits are evidently of
little account after death, as these grosser parts
of his spiritual nature shrink, shrivel up, and revert
at death to their original elements, and sink to
earth, but all three souls have to be propitiated
with ofTerings to meet their wants. The Chinese
believe that neglect will bring to the family in its
train misery, wretchedness, jpenury, and want, and

* The author knows of at least one instance where a friend or
relative brought the bones back mingled with other effects
in a box.

27

The Life of a Dead Chinaman

the loss of what they mi^ht otherwise have in-
herited in the way of official emoluments and
literary distinction.

For burial, “ a low position, where the soil is
damp/’ is to be avoided, as white ants would soon
riddle such a coffin in such a place, to say nothing
of the body lying in moisture. Such a condition of
the coffin, ‘‘it is believed, the dead resent with a
fierce and bitter feeling, that seems to set them' in
the wildest hostility to the friends who are
responsible for this state of things ; and in the
Land of Shadows they plan how they shall be
revenged upon those who have shown so little feel-
ing for them as to bury them in such a position.’’
Any proximity of large trees is considered to be
specially obnoxious to the occupants of graves.
It seems that the waving of the branches during a
storm, and the sighing of winds through them,
produce stich doleful sensations that the spirits
are apt to get irritated, and by and by “ vent their
wrath by hurling calamities on the living.”

Thus the dead to-day all over China: hold the
living within their grip. They are believed in some
mysterious way to have the ability to change the
destinies of a family. They can raise it from
poverty and meanness to wealth and the most
exalted position ; but if they are' neglected, and
offerings not made to the'm at the regular seasons,
they will take away houses and lands from it, and
turn the members of it into beggars.

The worship at the tombs takes place twice a
28

Worship at the Tombs

year, in spring and autumn, but spring is the
time par excellence consecrated to the purpose.
The family reunion round the graves to worship
takes somewhat the place of our summer outings.
From far and near they gather. Boats and chairs,
or their own legs, carry the family party to the
unenclosed hill, where, amidst possibly myriads
of other graves, and surroimded by numerous
groups of other worshippers, they spread out the
meats and vegetables and cakes in bowls and
dishes ; light the candles and incense-sticks ; put
fresh turf on the little hillock ; or clean up the
horseshoe-shaped grave. These outings are a
combination of business with pleasure, and, the
serious business over, an agreeable little picnic
follows .

That the souls of the departed are in the direst
straits, unless attended to, is the firm belief of ihe
Chinese. On the Chinese “ All Souls’ Day ” pro-
visions in tempting array are laid out for them to
consume, while all sorts of articles are forwarded
to them in the other world, being sublimated by the
mysterious influence of the element of fire. In
plain language, what in our lands would be called
dolls’ houses, made of bamboo and paper, boats,
sedan-chairs, furniture, all constructed of such
flimsy materials and only made to be thus burned,
are sent by the fire and their ashes into ghost-land.
Even paper men and women ai'e also despatched,
to make the establishment complete, and, that all
necessaries may be procured, paper to represent

29

The Life of a Dead Chinaman

money is also forwarded by the same potent means.
From all this it will be seen that in the Chinese
mind the future life is merely a projection of this
existence on to another plane of life. In the nether
regions a replica of this world appears as far
as life, occupation, and motives are concerned, the
only difference being apparently that it is a land
of shades and darkness.

The courts of the Kings of the Ghosts are a
reproduction of those of Chinese mandarins, the
attendants, like their prototypes on earth, are fierce
and cruel, but fiercer and more cruel than earthly
ones, as the punishments in the majority of cases
are conceived in the spirit of tyrants. It is
supposed by some that the normal period for life
in this purgatory is sixteen years, by, which time
it is apparently thought that, purged of their
iniquities, those who have passed through it are
ready for another period of existence on earth.
Then, if their misdeeds in a former life deserve
it, their punishment is still continued, by their
having to descend lower in the scale of existence.
Thus a man may be bom as an ox, or begin
life anew as a woman. The worst become worms,
insects, and reptiles. The good, on the contrary,
ascend in the scale, being born into a higher station
in life ; or they may ascend even to the skies
as demi-gods.

This belief in the transmigration of souls is one
reason for the abstention from flesh by many in
the Celestial Empire. No one knows how many

30

Man and the Unknown

lives a dead Chinaman is supposed to live again.
The nine lives of a cat pale into utter "insignificance
beside the possibilities which open out before him.
But the worst of it is, he, as a rule, Tias no
remembrance of the past, though Buddha recounted
his experiences in the different bodies he passed
through (between five and six hundred altogether).

The Chinese have made many attempts to lift
the dark curtain that hides the future from’ mortal
ken. The “ theories are oftentimes vague and
contradictory, and when they are put to the touch
of logic they fail utterly before its tests. They
are as brave an effort, however, as has ever been
made by any heathen people to construct a system
that shall try and satisfy the cravings of the human
heart about the unknown- They are profoundly
human, and an exalted vein of righteousness runs
throughout them. There is no paltering with evil,
and no elevation of vice or impurity, and icven
their ideal ruler of the Land of Shadows, stern
and severe as he is represented to be, can always
unbend before the exhibition of goodness in any
of the spirits under his control.” ^

* Maegowan, Sidelights on Chinese Life, p. 223.

31

CHAPTER IV

Wind, and Water, or “Fung-Shui”

O F. all the vagaries which the human mind
has evolved from its inner consciousness, the
palm must surely be given to the mass of rules
for the guidance of the believer in fang-shui.
About 400,000,000 of our fellow -men are believers
in it. It doubtless had its origin in the observation of
some of the operations of Nature by an ignorant and
unscientific people, who, unable to assign correct
causes for effects, have let their fancy lead them
astray. A remembrance of the prehistoric monsters
in the shape of a dragon (a green dragon), a tiger *
(a white tiger), combined with the five elements,
the male and female principles, the four points
of the compass, the ten celestial stems, the twelve
horary characters— all these and other elements
are united together as a basis for the wildest
imaginings. A favourable situation for a grave,
or a house, or a piece of land, are matters in which
fang-shui is important. It determines also
“ whether in repairing a house, in building at

' Tigers are still found in many parts of the Empire.

32

A Troublesome System

cemeteries, in moving an old grave, or opening
a new one/’ in building a wall, “or in doing any-
thing involving the displacement of earth, any
hindrance exists to the work being proceeded
with.” Some persons may not use fungrshui in
all these matters ; but “ in everything connected
with graves the universal custom is to employ ” it.*

In addition to this, till recently the opposition
to railways was founded on this superstition. For
as the railway lines cut through graves, they must
destroy the fang-skai. The telegraph has now
spread pretty nearly all over the Empire ; but
it was at first, because of fimg-shui, received
with the strongest opposition by the people.
The first telegraph line constructed in China was
between Flong Kong and Canton. The thought
of that mysterious wire passing over their land
aroused among the people all the superstitious
dread of occult influences. The highly significant
names of the localities served by this line only
confirmed them in their fear of the consequences.
Canton is the “ City of Ram's ” or “ Sheep ” ;
the mouth of the Canton River is known as “ The
Tiger’s Mouth ” ; the district opposite Hong Kong
is that of “The Nine Dragons.” What more
disastrous conditions could be combined than
to link such things together — a line to lead the
Sheep right into the Tiger’s Mouth, or in the
opposite direction amongst Nine Dragons?

However, the Chinese Government were resolved
* Thomson, p. 211.

33

Wind and Water, or “Fung-Shui”

that this and other lines should be constructed^
and the opposition of the people had to give way.
When^ as sometimes happened, the telegraph poles
were uprooted by the populace, they were set up
again, and soldiers protected the employees of the
administration of telegraphs and their works. So,
until the present renaissance of China, many
foreign innovations which came athwart the Chinese
line of progress were objected to, as, though
perchance beneficial to the foreigner, they would
be fraught with injury to the Land of the Dragon
and the Tiger.

Not only would the tiger be led along the
ground, as with the telegraph line just men-
tioned ; but in the case of railways this mythical
tiger, or it may be the dragon, lies in the ground,
and, though buried in the earth, yet is evidently
alive, and deeply resentful of any injury done to
it by a railway cutting. At one part of the com-
pass the dragon will be disturbed ; at another the
white tiger. Other elements also come into play
in this farrago of nonsense. The whole thing has
been worked up into what the Chinese consider
an exact science, with its professors, whose
occupation in life is to find out suitable sites for
graves and buildings, and to be consulted when
occasion arises on which their advice should be
sought. Do we ourselves discover any unsatis-
factory influences in our surroundings? The cause
is looked for in soil, dampness, or atmospheric
conditions. With the Chinese this pseudo-science

34

Professors of the Art

c'otnes into action with a full play, of fancy ; its
empirical laws are searched ; and the conditions
made to agree with what the books have laid
down. Of course the evil is discovered at once
by the sage professor of the science. Do away
with the conditions which no one can dispute, and
all will be right, or bring other conditions into
play which will counteract the adverse ones, and
thus good will be evolved out of evil.

The author dame across a case in point.
Travelling in the Canton province, he and a
fellow-traveller were curious to know the reason
for a peculiarly shaped tower standing at a corner
of the city wall in the City of Fragrant Hills.
The explanation, at first, conveyed no meaning
to the two foreigners, who listened to it from
native lips. It required some months, or years,
of soaking into the foreign brain before the full
meaning was apprehended. Even then it is ques-
tionable whether its full purport could be grasped,
for it apparently needs a Chinese mind to fully
understand such things.

It appears that a stream of wealth was flowing
out of the city—the city being a wealthy one, much
of it having accrued from the honest labour of the
now retired merchants who had amassed it abroad.
The wiseacres who had made fang-shui their study
advised the erection of this tower, by means of
which the hard-earned savings of the wealthy might
be retained. A poetical imagination is thus, it
seems, let loose amongst superstitious beliefs.

35

Wind and Water, or “Fung-Shui”

Many fantasies of the Chinese mind^ raised in
assigning causes for malevolent influences, might
— were it not that all is taken in sober earnest —
raise a suspicion that the enunciator of them, like
Bret Harte’s Ah Sin, had a card up his sleeve.
It is not to be doubted that astute knaves are
enabled, under the excuse of fung-shui^ to earn
an income from the credulous.

This geomancy is, in fact, a weapon ready in
the hands of those who wish to injure others, or
of those who, with a good object in view, have
injured others, as the following instance will show.

The primary object of a pagoda in China has
been to preserve the relics of a Buddha or saint.
The Chinese have, however, improved on this, and
firmly believe that to conserve or improve the
propitious geomantic influences of a place it is
necessary to have these picturesque objects— narrow
and polygonal obelisks many stories in height,
which enhance the scenery and give a distinctive
feature to it.

There is at least one pagoda in China which
has exerted a malign influence, as it is believed
to be a great hindrance to the prosperity of the
district in which it is situated. The story goes
thus : —

“ Many years ago there was a magistrate
appointed to this district who understood geomancy.
On examining a hill, he found out that, unless a
pagoda were built there, there would arise in Kwong-
chi (the district in question) some men who would

36

A Pervasive Difficulty

be endowed with such extraordinary abilities that
they might prove dangerous to the State. So he
made a representation to the Throne, with the
result that this pagoda was built— and now Kwong-
chi cannot produce a single man of note.”

From this it will be seen that such influences
“ may be friendly to one person and hostile to
another. Thus one Chinese may build a house
or a place of business upon a particular spot of
earth, and the fang-shui being favourable to him,
prosperity will come to him and his ; but if another
Chinese should construct the same building, for
the same purpose, upon the same location, he would
only meet with disaster, because the local influences
were hostile to him. His children would die, his
business be ruined, and the curse of evil spirits
would involve him in hopeless destruction. Upon
the other hand, if this second Chinese should
construct a different style of building, or the same
building for another purpose, the local powers
might be satisfied not to annoy him.” ^

In place of our “ ancient lights ” in England,
this topographical superstition may provide a
cause for an action at law. In China a suit might
lie and damages be recovered if the complainant
could show the judge to his satisfaction that the
defendant had affected the complainant prejudici-
ally by damaging the fang-shai of his house, or
ancestral hall or place of business

The author’s father wished, while residing in
’ Holcombe, The Real Chinaman, p. 146.

37 D

Wind and Water, or “Fung-Shui”

the city of Canton, to have a window put into the
side of his house which gave on to a square in
front of a temple. But the master of the premises
used as a shop on the opposite side of the square
objected, as it would overlook his place. All that
would be allowed was the putting in of one or
two large open-work ornamental tiles near the roof,
which permitted a small quantity of air to circulate.
The matter was compromised in this way ; but,
if the window had been insisted on, grave trouble
would have arisen. If both parties had been
Chinese, it would have been considered as a valid
cause for action.

Chinese houses have no chimneys, as they have
no fireplaces, a broad opening in the roof pro-
tected from' the rain serving the purpose of con-
ducting the smoke from the kitchen. It conse-
quently happens that in Peking “ the Chinese shun,
as much as possible, living next door to a house
occupied by a foreigner.” For the roofs of such
houses “ are dotted with chimneys, built simply
with a view to comfort and convenience, with a
reckless disregard of all the laws of fung-shui."

Some years ago an American in the employ of
the Chinese Government was prevented from
putting any chimneys to his house, as a high
Chinese official who lived next door to him refused
to permit him to have them. The poor American
had to go through the intense cold of a Peking
winter without a fire in his house, and had to try
to warm himself with charcoal brasiers. When

38

The Things that Matter

a high chimney was put up for the gasworks in
the same city, house property within a mile fell
to a half of its former value.

Here are some of the rules which guide the
professor of geomancy in his decisions with
reference to houses and lands : The principal
house in a mansion must be lofty, and the sub-
sidiary buildings (which are combined with several
main buildings, at least to form a mansion) shall
be low. This is one of the chief principles. 6thers
of importance are that “ neither exactly opposite
the outside site, nor on either side of the house,
“ shall there be a temple of any kind ; that the
private drains be arranged according to geomantic
principles ; that a certain number of doors follow
each other in succession, never exactly in line ;
and that the windows be on certain sides of the
houses. The differences in the height of the
ground must be taken into consideration, and
the neighbours’ roofs must be examined, lest there
be anything thereon to interfere with the fling-
shai of the house in question.”

“ In the case of land, the secret influences ^ that
come and go ; the height and evenness of ” the
ground ; “on which side the hillocks are to be
raised, the low parts filled in ; in what direction

* These influences must be very secret, one would think, to
the geomancer and every one else ; for the literal translation of
the terms used to express them are, 'The Coming Dragon,’
'The Departing Pulse,’ 'The Breath of the Earth,’ and 'The
Power of the Earth’” (Thomson).

39

Wind and Water, or “Fung-Shui”

the water is to flow off ; and how the trees are to
be planted, &c. — are all points that are intimately
connected with the fung-shui of the place,”

In one thing alone fung-shai appears to be a
benefit to the Chinese, and that is in the matter
of trees about villages. Most villages nestled at
the foot of hills, or standing solitary on the plains,
have a grove of fine trees about or behind them.
This is due to the geomantic influences which the
trees ■ are supposed to exercise.

There has often been great objection to the
steeples or spires of churches ; and in nearly all
cases the missionaries have met this objection by
constructing churches and chapels without them.
In many instances the buildings have, if ' not a
Chinese shop or house adapted to the purpose,
been built according to the Chinese mode. There
was much bad feeling with regard to the French
Roman Catholic Cathedral in the New City in
Canton. Besides the allegation which festered in
the minds of the people, to the effect that the
ground on which it stood had been unjustly
acquired by the foreigner, one of the strongest
objections against it in the Chinese mind centred
in the twin spires which dominated the whole city.
A riot took place, and a permanent guard of
native soldiers had to be placed at the cathedral
gates.

A wise quidnunc, after some years of exas-
perated feeling on the part of the populace,
enunciated the consoling statement that, instead

40

Geomancy and the Grave

of this high stone building dominating the whole
city for evil, it was most lucky in its geomantic
properties. For what could be better or more
fitting than a pair of horns (such as the two spires
doubtless were) for the City of Rams, as Canton
is called 1

After all, the stronghold of this curious medley
of superstition is in the grave, in which also
ancestral worship centres. More than amongst
any other people the grave is the centre of life
amongst the Chinese. To us it would seem not
possible that the condition or situation of a grave
should affect the prosperity of a family ; the con-
verse might be the case. But the former is what
the Chinese believes, and the sums of money spent
annually and throughout the Empire in attempts to
select some auspicious site for a father’s resting-
place must be something enormous.

How far-reaching are some of the malign in-
fluences of fung-shui may be judged by the fact
that, some years since, a number of high Chinese
officials united in a petition to the Throne, asking
that p. stop be put to mining coal and iron at a
point forty miles distant from the Imperial Tombs,
upon the plea that this mining would disturb the
bones of the Empress, who had recently been
buried.

The late Emperor Tung Chi was not buried for
some nine months after his death, as no place
was discovered in which his remains could be laid
without disturbing the fung-shui. Two Imperial

41

Wind and Water, or “Fung-Shui”

cemeteries exist, each about one hundred miles
distant from Peking— one to the east and one to
the west, so as to prevent any untoward circum-
stance arising ; and the sovereigns alternate in
their occupancy of their final resting-place.

By rights Tung Chi should have been buried
in the Western Cemetery, as his turn was to be
laid there to rest, his father having gone to the
Eastern Cemetery. “ But the court astrologers
declared, as a result of their divinations, that no
place could be found there where he might lie
without injury to the State, and hence that he
must be buried elsewhere. Months of investiga-
tion, repeated references to different boards and
departments of the public service, and numerous
commands from the new Emperor followed, until,
after nine months of effort, it was finally decided
that he positively could not be intended in the
Western Cemetery, where he belonged, but, with
certain precautionary and conciliatory measures,
he might be put underground in the Eastern.
This was done, as the lesser of two. evils.

“ The whole Empire had been stirred over the
question. It had been debated at numerous
Councils of State, and a large sum of money, esti-
mated at ” about £50,000, had been expended, all
to determine at what spot the coffin of the deceased
Emperor should rest (Holcombe, p. 150).

Many a coffin remains above-ground in China
for months, or even years. Lack of time for
the elaborate funeral exercises, or of funds to

42

The Grip of the System

meet the extravagant expehses dictated by custom,
is in some instances the Cause of the delay ; but
in a vast majority of cases it is caused by trouble
about the fung-shui. For the most part “ the
trouble is easily adjusted, and by some absui"dly
trivial and inconsequential act, such Us the plant-
ing of a tree at a particulair spot in the cemetery,
or perhaps the removal of a shrub or a stone.”

A certain chapel in Canton had a portico with
a row of pillars. The people in the neighbour-
hood had assisted in subscribing for a public clock
placed over it (one of the only two in the whole
large city). So there was no question of any
objection to the chapel, or they would not have
thus given a quasi -sanction to it ; and it had
thus stood for years. The author, on inquiring
why the columns had disappeared some years since,
was informed that the Chinese thought they were
bad fung-shui; so they had been taken down.

As “ this fung-shui delusion holds the entire
Chinese nation in subjection, the professors of the
art of divination are, as a class, as sincerely its
victims as are those who employ them to solve
its tangled mysteries in their own affairs. To
refer again to the burial of Tung Chi, a large
number of the ablest officials of the Empire made
no effort to conceal their anxiety as to the effect
of his being placed in the Eastern Cemetery.
And when in subsequent years famine, flood, and
other disasters came upon the nation, some of
these were bold enough to point out in written

43

Wind and Water, or “Fung-Shui”

memorials to the Throne that these calamities
came as a result of violated fang -shut, as punish-
ments for the interment of the late Emperor in
a spot where he did not properly belong.

“ The effect of such a system upon the lives of
those who accept it can hardly be realised. That
it must interfere with business, check enterprise,
and hamper that individual freedom of action
which is essential to healthy development-— all this
is evident. But it goes far beyond this. It
makes men by turns crazy fanatics and senseless
cowards. And no cowardice is so damaging and
hopeless as that which fears intangible, unseen
dangers — dangers which a man cannot struggle
against, and from which he cannot run.

“ It can easily be imagined that such a system,
with its innumerable ramifications and varieties
of applications, might absolutely block the wheels
of organised social and business life, and bring
all things to a standstill. Perhaps it would, were
not the Chinese remarkable for their capacity of
adjustment, and for the patience and success with
which they manage to evade difficulties and to
compromise where they cannot readily conquer.

“ Were they less phlegmatic, good-natured, and
practical, the existence of this universal super-
stition must long since have driven the entire race
into lunacy.” ^

* Holcombe, pp. 152-4,

44

CHAPTER V

The Much-married Chinaman

T he average Westerner doubtless thinks that
John Chinaman is very much married ; and
so he is, if only those who have a multiplicity
of wives are taken into account. But there are
many who are content, or have to be content,
with monogamy. Circumstances over which he
has no control often force, according to his ideas,
the Chinaman into polygamy.* There is, or should
be, only one queen in the house— whether it be
hovel or palace— which stands for the word home.
But the assessor or assessors — who, according to
the Oriental idea, ought by rights to serve the
queen, be obedient to her, and live in harmony
with her — at times usurp her province. Then civil
war or domestic strife— a thirty years’ war some-
times, if not worse— ensues. The king who finds
the strife of tongues too much for him, and is
unable to rule his unruly queens, is perforce at
times obliged to separate the warring elements,
and locate them in separate homes ; though all

“ See Chapter III. pp. 26, 27.

. 45

The Mtich-married Chinaman

his efforts will not stop the cbntinnal dropping
of hints, innuendoes, blame, and abuse by angry
and contentious women.

A multiplicity of wives is a luxury — and an
expensive one at that — even for the rich ; but an
exception may be made in the case of the com-
paratively poor man, if the partners be taken in
moderation. For in such a case two female
members of the household may, with sewing and
embroidery and shoemaking, double the income
of the home.

It is considered far better for a woman to
occupy the position of a wife than that of a con-
cubine, and people of means or of great respect-
ability as a rule see to their daughter's taking
the supreme position in a household.

“It is difficult even to guess at the extent of
polygamy, for no statistics have been or can be
easily taken. Among the labouring classes it is
rare to find more than one woman to one man ;
but tradesmen, official persons, landholders, and
those in easy circumstances, frequently take one
or more concubines — ^perhaps two -fifths of such
persons have them. Show and fashion lead some
to increase the number of th^ women, though
aware of the discord likely to arise, for they fully
believe their own proverb, that ‘ Nine women out
of ten are jealous.’

“Yet it is probably true that polygamy findjs its
greatest support from the women themselves. The
wife seeks to increase her own position, by getting

46

EBui;

Polygamy in Practice

more women into the house to relieve her ” in her
“ own work and humour her fancies. The Chinese
illustrate the relation by comparing the wife to the
moon and the concubines to the stars, both of
which in their appropriate spheres wait upon and
revolve around the sun. It is not infrequent for
a man to secure a maidservant ” for “ the family,
with the consent of his wife, by purchasing her
for a concubine, especially if his occupation
frequently call him away from home.” ' In this
case he often takes her as his travelling companion,
leaving his wife in charge of the household.

And yet the best feelings of the nation are at
heart evidently against the practice. A sentence
from the Great Learnmg, one of the Confucian
classics, is constantly in use by women. It is
to this effect : “ Their persons being cultivated,
their families were regulated.” When a wife
quarrels with a concubine, and a husband remon-
strates, this will be flimg into his teeth, as much
as to say, “You have, by bringing in a concubine,
failed to regulate your conduct and person.”

A progressive Chinese of intelligent views ex-
pressed the opinion to the author that polygamy
was largely responsible for the bribery and corrup-
tion of official life, and while it existed such
practices would not, or could not, be given up.
His belief — and it is widely shared — was that the
expenses of a harem, with all the incidentals qf
servants and an indefinite number of children, was
' Williams, The Middle Kingdom, i. pp. 791-2.

47

The Much-married Chinaman

one of the main reasons for the urgent need of
a much larger income than legitimate official
sources could be expected to grant or afford to
those filling high posts under the Government.

Thousands of years ago^ one of the most
renowned men in China married the two
daughters of one man as equal wives. This
solitary case has served as* a plea with many a
woman. It is pitiable to see how so-called wives
try to use it, endeavouring ther'eby to show that
they actually fill the position they would hold if
they could. The author in his official life saw
not a few cases in which a secondary wife, or
concubine, has said that she was the equal wife
of the. man who has another legal first wife. She
has got the so-called husband to promise that
she shall be his equal wife. But no plea of that
kind is of any avail, as there is but one legal
first wife in China, and no one, while she is alive,
can be her equal. The others are called wives
by courtesy only, and their position is a lower
one than that of the legal principal wife. “ If
names be not correct, language is not in accord-
ance with the truth of things,'’ ^ is another quota-
tion from the classics, which the Chinese use when
in such a case a man calls his concubine his
wife.

The sayings of a people often give a clue to
their feelings. The following sentence ^ from the

= These quotations are taken from the author’s work The Pith
of the Classics : The Chinese Classics in Everyday Life.

48

A Popular Excuse

classics—** There are three things which are un-
filial^ and to have no posterity is the greatest of
them ” — is used as the reason for taking a wife,
and especially for taking a concubine, when a! man
is without offspring. How deep-rooted this feeling
is in the mind of the Chinese may be gathered
by the fact that this quotation is in constant use
amongst the people.

As the poor occupy but little space, a second
wife does not take up much room ; but with the
rich considerable provision must be made for their
accommodation. The author, when a boy and
allowed by Chinese custom to visit the ladies with
his sisters, was once taken over a mansion of
one of the wealthy inhabitants of a citj. This
gentleman had six ladies dependent on his bounty,
who looked up to him as their lord a^d master.
They were housed in different apartments of what
might be described as a gallery round the central
square court of his house.

Allusion has been made to quarrels in the house-
hold when a man brings another wife in to vex
the inmate or inmates of his dwelling. But the
Chinese customs so familiarise women as well as
men with the courtesy title of wife applied at the
same time to several women by one man, that
what would be considered as an insult in our
Western lands is looked on as a natural conse-
quence of unproductiveness on the part of the
wife, or of wealth, which allows the numerical pro-
portions of the family to be expanded.

49

The Much-married Chinaman

Though the natural feelings at the bottom of
a woman's heart are against sharing a husband
with others, yet, so imperative are the demands
of custom and religion for a male heir, that she
is pleased in many cases to stifle her heaven-
born instincts and be content. In some cases even,
a wife urges on her husband to satisfy the clamant
need of a family, by procuring what may prove
to be a rival to her in his affections — presuming
that the affections have been called into play by
their marriage and are not lying dormant for some
beauty to claim them. It must be remembered
in this connection that the wife's ancestral tablet
is set up by the side of her husband’s on her
death, and, if a son is needed to pay the proper
pious rites to his late father, a son’s services are
also required for her.

As far as the parties themselves are concerned^
the marriage of a legal first wife and her husband
might almost be described as automatic. The
machinery is set in motion by the parents, the
parties themselves having nothing to do with it.
What necessity is there for them to see each other?
They seldom do, unless it be in the country, where
it would be well-nigh impossible for the boys and
girls, even with the seclusion of the latter in
Chinese life, not to have passed before each other’s
eyes. It is possible for the young man, in some
cases iaX all events, to manage to get a glance
at his future wife, but that is all, and in many
cases not even a glimpse is seen by the future
husband of her who is to be his wife.

50

Domestic Tragedies

The go-between arranges everything with the
parents on both sides. There is much going back
and forward ; the fortune-teller decides whether
the horoscopes of the couple agree ; presents are
sent or exchanged ; and at last a grand series of
ceremonies lasting three days takes place, an in-
dispensable worship of ancestors being one of the
most important.

What must the feelings of the pair; be when
the red cloth is lifted from the bride’s face as
she steps out of the red bridal sedan-chair (in
which a woman only rides once in her life), and
the two persons, whO' have not been consulted in the
affair, face each other, probably for the first time?
Bound together for life they are, whether plain
or beautiful, diseased or sound, intelligent or with
only a small modicum of brains. Imbecility, even,
seems at times to be no bar to marriage. Raptures
at the sight of a beauty greater than could possibly
have been hoped for would not, one would think,
satisfy a husband as to the qualities of mind or
temper unknown and xmtried in the past.

That tragedies arise from such a course of action
is natural and inevitable. A case of which the
author heard many years ago may show the
occasional result of bringing the two together,
without any preliminary introduction and inter-
course.

After all the noise ,and excitement of the crowd
were over, the bridegroom saw, to his horror (if
he had not noticed it before on the arrival of the

SI

The Much-married Chinaman

bride^ when the conventionalities prevented any
action), what an ugly creature his newly espoused
wife was. His whole soul revolted at the union
with such a hideous object. Spurning her with
cruel words, he retired to rest alone, and left her
to cry out her misery in the corner of the room
all night.

On the other hand, it is a fact that a veritable
affection does grow up in not a few cases between
couples thus brought together, and so a situation
fraught with every possibility of evil is rendered
haimiless. If the first wife dies, another can be
married to “ take the room ” of the deceased,
“ to carry on the house,” as it is termed, and this
so shortly after the death of the former as would
be considered scandalous in our Western world.
A woman takes so inferior a place in the economy
of the East that a husband is not required either
to attend the funeral of a wife or to express grief
for her demise by wearing mourning — and this
in a land where the utmost punctiliousness is
observed in all such matters.

All the children born under this expansive
system of wedlock are technically the children
of the first wife, and call her the “ big mother.”
These children are all legitimate, and appear to
be equals, though their mothers are not, or may
not be, theoretically speaking. Practically, there
is often not much difference in everyday life in
the positions of the women who own one man
as their husband.

•52

The Mother-in-Law

The chief wife is the head of the wpmenfolk^
if there is no mother-in-law alive. If there be^
then the mother-in-law rules, and often with a
rod of iron. A cruel, tyrannical, and hard-
hearted woman can make the life of daughters -
in-law and subsidiary wives and slave-girls a
perfect misery, and the poor little wife has a hard
struggle indeed. For the wife is supposed to
bear everything in patience and submission, and
to wait hand and foot on the mother-in-law. In
the West the mother-in-law is often a much-
maligned person and the butt of many a joke.
In China the mother-in-law is held up to the
highest respect and almost worship.

The feelings of this august personage towards
the daughter-in-law may be judged, as well as the
feelings of her poor inferior towards her, from
the following advice by a Chinese : “ There is

no .such thing as a mother not loving her daughter ;
nor is there such a thing as a mother-in-law not
hating her daughter-in-law. Would that the
mothers -in-law in this world would expend thirty
per cent, of the love for their daughters on their
daughters -in -law.*' The mother-in-law is the head
of the family, at least as far as the domestic
arrangements arc concerned^ so the daughter-in-
law is virtually in most cases a slave to the
mother-in-law, and her servitude is a long and
bitter one, unless the mother-in-law is kind-hearted
in disposition.

Though reference has already been made to the

53 E

The Much-married Chinaman

domestic difficulties due to this semi -legalised
system of concubinage, it is the fact that cases
do occur where the utmost harmony appears to
prevail, where one would suppose such a course
incompatible with human nature. A curious
instance came under the author’s notice, where
two cousins, married to one man, were as
harmonious and happy together, to all outward
appearances, as sisters.

The exhibition of affection on the part of man
or woman to the opposite sex is frowned on by
Chinese custom and prudery. The outward signs
of it between husband and wife are wanting.
Kissing is most indelicate, except between elders
and little children, and then it takes the shape
of smelling the cheeks. Nevertheless, from
inquiries the author has made, he has ascertained
that even husbands and wives, where there is love
between them, know how to kiss each other, when
none can see, or suspect them guilty of such
conduct.

There must be many a loveless marriage in
China ; and the laxity of the marriage bond (as
regards the man alone) and its wide circumference
as regards more than one woman to one man,
jgive free play to the husband. If he does not
find a sweetheart at home, he seeks and finds one
abroad, whom' he may bring into his house as a
secondary wife.

The taking of a concubine is a much less serious
business th,an, the marrying of a wife,. It is

54

Costly Weddings

necessary^ as a general rule, to have the inter-
vention of a go-between, to make it a perfectly
proper affair, and lift it on to a higher plane than
the mere taking of a mistress ; but the presents
and the whole arrangements differ in various parts
of the country, and are reduced to the most ele-
mentary proportions at times.

The Chinese almost beggar themselves on
marriages, and spend lavishly on such occasions,
borrowing, if they have not got the money on
hand ; and in a country where a high rate of
interest is required, crippling themselves for years,
if not for life, by their extravagant expenditure.

As a concrete illustration of this, there may be
instanced the case of a Chinese in Singapore who
became a bankrupt, mainly owing to the marriage
of his three sisters, each of which cost him some
£40. He himself drew a salary of nearly £7 a
month, out of which his ordinary expenditure
afnounted to some £5 odd, leaving him after this
only about £14 a year. On a salary like this, of
course, it was impossible to meet such heavy
expenses. In a country like China though, where
there is no bankruptcy court as such, this load
of debt would have hampered such a foolish man
for life, increasing as the years went on, probably
on what would be considered as a moderate interest
of 36 per cent, per annum*

Divorce is allowed in China for seven reasons :
Barrenness (though in this case the difficulty may
be obviated by the taking of a secondary wife),

55

The Much-married Chinaman

lasciviousness, jealousy, talkativeness, thieving,
disobedience towards her husband’s parents, and
leprosy. But the author scarcely remembers
coming across a case of divorce during his long
residence in China ; and the requirements in the
resort to it are sufficient to prevent its being often
carried out in real life, as far as regards a first
wife.

To begin with, her parents must be alive to
receive the discarded wife. Moreover, there is
a high standard of morality amongst respectable
and well-to-do families in China ; so that the
second reason is not likely to occur. As to
jealousy, the author has seen a great deal of it
in China. As regards this and talkativeness, the
Chinese husband apparently thinks that “ what
cannot be cured must be endured.” Thieving is
not worthy of attention as a reason amongst
respectable people. As to her husband’s parents,
a wife is married as much, if not sometimes more,
to be a daughter-in-law as to be a wife ; and, with
the ingrained respect the Chinese have for the
aged, transgression is not likely to be more than
venial, except in a few cases. The last reason,
leprosy, is a more serious matter. But the go-
between is supposed to see that the bride-elect
is healthy and well, and, though there are many
lepers in China, the percentage to the population
cannot be very great, so the contingency of its
occurring is small. With concubines the matter
is very different ; and, if she have no relations to

56

Child Labour

make it unpleasant to her so-called husband, she
has no redress. Divorce in China, if acted on, is
quite one-sided ; no wife could think of divorcing
her husband— the king does no wrong, can do no
wrong.

There is many a capable woman in China, and
when such a one is married to an incompetent man,
or a confirmed gambler, or an opium sot, she is
compelled, if in poor circumstances, to be the
bread-winner of the family. Amongst the poor
both husband and wife support the family by their
labours, and the children add their mites as soon
as able, beginning by scouring the streets and
water’s edge for every scrap of wood or shaving,
to keep the pot boiling at home. They soon learn
to mind a street stall, or to do any other thing to
help. The baby is strapped on tlieir backs when
they are little more than infants themselves, and
thus baby is out in the open air nearly all day
long, and kept out of mischief’s way, while the
little brother or sister is picking up chips or doing
some other light toil to add to the means of the
house .

Marriage by proxy is in vogue in China. If
circumstances should make it impossible for the
prospective bridegroom to return home, his
presence, in some districts of the country, is not
considered an absolute necessity. In .such a case
a cock may be his proxy (this actually occurred
with a servant of the author) ; and on return home
the man may find a wife waiting for him and the

57

The Much-married Chinaman

whole ceremony finished without the trouble of
his going through it. It always appears to be
necessary for the woman to be present, though
of so little consequence is the consent of the two
parties to a marriage, thjat one might almost
suppose they could be married in the absence of
both.

The height of absurdity, however, seems to have
been attained when a poor girl is married to a
dead man. This is not an uncommon occurrence,
when a girFs betrothed dies before marriage. It
is then considered the height of virtue and pro-
priety when the maiden announces that she will
marry the dead. She then leaves her parents and
her childhood’s home, and is practically dead to
her own home and relatives, as a wife nearly
always is. She takes up her abode with the
mother of the dead man, and of course is never
really married to a living man ; for in respectable
society in China it is considered disgraceful for
a woman to take another man as her husband.
A man may, however, marry over and over again
without let or hindrance. However, many a
Chinese widow consoles herself with a husband
again after the death of the first ; but this is
more especially the Case in the lower classes of
society. In the higher classes it is considered
to be a disgrace to the late husband’s family for
the widow to marry again. A second marriage of
a woman is a very different affair from the 'first ;
there is no red bridal sedan-chair, and the whole

S8

Marriage and Morals

thing may be a very commonplace affair, in com-
parison with all the pomp and ceremony of the
first.

Amongst the very lowest classes there is a
certain amount of immorality, or looseness of the
marriage tie, in the way of a wife leaving her
husband and taking up with another man. This
is sometimes the case when a husband goes abroad
for years. In the case of the boat population it
is a matter of common report that the women are
not as virtuous as those on land. In the causes
in which a wife leaves her husband, generally
amongst the working classes, a number of which
came before the author in his official capacity,
he found that the husband was usually quite ready
to take the wife back again ; but the chief concern
was to get the son returned again to the family
in which he was born, so as to have a son for
ancestral worship. For the same reason the other
man was sometimes wishful to retain the boy.

It will thus be seen that it is the man who has
all the plums in the marriage market— as many
wives as he likes, or his purse will allow, divorce
in certain cases, and besides these, the power to
beat his wife. Man is considered superior to
woman in every way in China.

The Chinese youth begins his married life early.
Boys are of age at sixteen, and most Chinese
young men are married at twenty, and sometimes
even years before.

The girls are considered to be quite mature at

59

The Much-married Chinaman

fifteen^ and some are married long before that
age. There is no doubt that both boys and girls
arrive at maturity far earlier than in the West ;
but there is no doubt also that the Chinese enter on
the married state too early in life.

6o

CHAPTER VI

John Chinaman Abroad

J OHN CHINAMAN is not welcomed abroad in
many places where his advent would be most
beneficial. Where he has been allowed full
scope to develop his admirable qualities in coloni-
sation, he has been the making of the country. He
is painstaking, diligent, industrious ; he will work
from early dIawn to late night ; he does not go
on the spree on Saturday and Sunday, and have
to keep Saint Monday and Saint Tuesday as well,
but is at his work every day. As to his vices,
they are, in many cases, no more, ceteris paribus^
than the Englishman’s.

Put on Chinese spectacles, and you will be
shocked at the immorality of some of the European
residents in China ; at the often seen drunkenness
of the soldier and sailor ; at the rudeness which
characterises the conduct of some to the Oriental
— rudeness which shows itself by a whack from
a walking-stick, or a prod from an umbrella,
or a slash from' a riding-whip, as one passes the
other ; by the ill-disguised superiority which shows

6i

John Chinaman Abroad

itself in some cases in almost every word and
action; in the hauteur which often reveals itself
in the countenance ; in the ignorant disregard of
Chinese rules of politeness, even the most elemen-
tary, which the Westerner not only does not know,
but, strange to say, does not even take the trouble
to learn, though living surrounded by masses of
natives who are polite to an almost painful degree
in the only way they know.

The Chinaman did not want the intruding
Westerner in his country two centuries ago ; but
the stranger would come in, and used his battle-
ships to open a way for him to enter. It was
inevitable, doubtless, and China has benefited
vastly by the stranger within her gates, as most
countries do — benefited vastly by the influx of
Western civilisation; by the breezy freshness
infused into the air of stagnation; by the intro-
duction of a new literature abreast of the times,
which is largely due to the missionaries’ efforts;
by the establishment of hospitals under missionary
aegis, for the cure of those whom ignorance had
left to suffer and die; by the multiplication of
schools, where the mind was educated, and not
only the memory at the expense of mind—this
again has been done mostly by the missionaries.

When the Chinaman followed the example of
the European and American, and desired like them
to better his position by going abroad, he was
first used for needful work where there was not
a sufficiency of their own people, as in the construc-

62

The Chinese Emigrant

tion of the mighty railway lines across Canada
and the United States, and then hounded out of
the land.

One serious objection to the Chinaman in some
countries is that he does not settle and become one
of the nation, but sends his earnings home, and
finally follows them himself. In short, he does
just what the complainant’s own countrymen do
in China, where the European or American mer-
chant looks forward to going home, sends his
accumulated savings back to Europe or America,
and after he has made Iiis pile returns to his native
land. Both invest in a fine house and lands and
fields and hope to enjoy the remainder of their
days in their native lands on the fruit of their
toil, the only difference between the two being
that many a Westerner, before his hopes arc
achieved, takes six feet by three by eight of China’s
soil to rest in, while nearly every Chinese is trans-
ported dead or alive to his native soil.

As to vices, there is not much to choose between
them. This blackguarding, of Chinese with foul
vices is to be deprecated, for it intensifies ill-feel-
ing ; and if the candid opinion of a Chinese, who
had as good a knowledge of the English as the
detractors of the Chinese have of them, were asked,
he would honestly say that the Chinese morality
was of a higher standard than the luiglish. We
cannot agree with this, but we do say that he has
strong grounds for his opinion, and this without
in any way wishing to decry our own countrymen.

63

John Chinaman Abroad

Whatever may be said about the wholesale
immigration of the Celestial into lands like
England;, where there is not even room for all
those born in it to make an honest, decent living,
and bring up a family in comfort, it is the rankest
folly to apply a hard-and-fast rule to all lands.

The Chinese have, to a great extent, made
Malaya and all the adjoining portions of Asia.
In such lands where those born in a temperate
clime are unable to toil in the open under a blazing
sun, the Chinese supply the raw material of labour,
and without them these countries would languish.

There are two notable instances of lands which
call for the Chinese and to which access is denied
them. There are the Philippines, where, by the
restrictive policy mistakenly pursued by the
Americans, this useful ingredient in the population
is ditninishing ; and there is the Northern Territory
in Australia. Both these lands are calling for
thelm, and the Chinese are the very people who
will supply the labour and develop the resources
that now lie latent and waiting for the genius of
the patient, toiling native of the Far East.
Developtnent lies to a great extent dormant till
he is permitted to enter these lands.

Those who raise objections to the Chinese
going abroad without their wives are sing-ularly
ignorant or forgetful of the conditions under which
their own countrymen go abroad to India, China,
and Japan, as well as the other countries on the
other side of the globe. Our sailors go for years

64

East and West Compared

to any and every part of the globe without their
womenfolk, and are confined in far closer quarters
on shipboard than any of the roomy compounds
in South Africa. Our soldiers are sent to
garrison our Eastern Colonies, and carry on wars
without their wives, except in a few cases, and
shut up in barracks often for long periods at a
time. Mechanics and artisans accept situations
under contracts for years in the Eastern Hemi-
sphere, without any chance in many cases of taking
their families out with them. These three classes
are about the equivalent in social position of which
the majority of Chinese labourers who emigrate
are composed.

To ascend higher in the social scale, the majority
of our naval ofiicers and many of our military
officers are debarred from the enjoyments of home-
life. All clerks sent abroad from Europe and
America to mercantile firms in the East never
expect that in addition to the passage-money
supplied them a further allowance will be granted
them for a wife ; and last of all many missionary
societies insist on all their younger agents pro-
ceeding to the East unmarried for a term of
y eai's .

If the Chinese arc immoral because they do
not take their wives with them when going abroad,
or because they have left their families behind,
while they add to their resources and hope to make
more tolerable the future with their enhanced
earnings abroad — if all these things prove them

65

John Chinaman Abroad

immoral, what about the Europeans and Americans
who leave their native shores under similar con-
ditions as prevail with the Chinese emigrant to
distant parts of the world?

There are not a few estimable Englishmen
abroad who will not marry, because they have the
opinion that the Eastern climate is not one to
which they should subject one of their own country-
women by marrying her, and taking her out to
form a home for them in their loneliness. If the
Chinaman goes abroad, it must be remembered
that the whole traditions of his race are against
his taking his wife to a foreign land, where after
all he is going only to spend a few years of his
^ife ; besides, the home has to be kept up.
Necessity forces him to go; for there are the
young children to look after, and there is again
his old mother, who cannot be left alone.

The Chinaman is a law-abiding man; but he
needs to be ruled with a strong hand and a just;
his national characteristics must be known and
allowed for, and a genuine and sympathetic interest
evinced in him as a human being. He is not a
savage, and naturally resents treatment as such.
The class of man like the overseer, who is placed
sometimes in authority over large working masses
of the Chinese, is often apt to be very overbear-
ing in his manner, and to kick and knock about
the Chinese who are under him. Unfortunately,
some higher in the social scale forget themselves
in this way as well.

66

Emigrant Wives

It is, however, a mistake to suppose that the
Chinaman never takes his womankind abroad with
him. When he goes half round the world, he
naturally often leaves her behind, though even
then she accompanies him at times ; but when the
distance is short there are large numbers of women
who emigrate, for instance, to places such as Singa-
pore. The author in his official capacity has seen
hundreds and thousands of them, and talked with
them. The women often travel by themselves
to their husbands, who have gone first and made
a home for them, their mothers-in-law sometimes
going with them. In other cases the husbands
have come home to take the whole family back
with them, and then the wife and the children
and perhaps the mother of the man are in the
party, or the man has come back to get married,
and take his young wife with him abroad. Occa-
sionally even the old grandmothers go' with them,
and there is an exodus of the whole family.

In the Straits Settlements some of the Chinese
settle down for life, taking Malay women for their
wives. Quite a community is growing up of Babas,
as they are called; that is, native-born Chinese
whose mothers are Malays. In some cases these
children thus born abroad, and so natives of
the soil, cannot speak their father-longue at all.
These Chinese who settle for many years, if not
for life, in those parts of the world, become often
quite polyglots in their speech; for besides speak-
ing the language prevailing in their own district

67

John Chinaman Abroad

at home in China, their business relationships
in the new country they have come to makes
it necessary for them to pick up the languages of
other parts of China, as represented by others
of the emigrants. A knowledge of Malay is so
easily acquired that they all speak Malay ; English
is also learned by a good many.

Many of these Chinese amass large fortunes,
nor are all the benefits they have acquired in their
new surroundings forgotten, as the wealthy Chinese
are fond of using their money for public purposes.

The author some thirty years ago had occasion
to employ a Chinese gentleman of some literary
attainments to assist him in his labours. Probably
this man’s income from all sources was not more
than about £2 or £3 a month. Five or six years
ago this gentleman called to see the author.
He had been for some years in the Federated
Malay States, and the family were now well off.
He was only on a visit to China, for he was
returning to the States. His sons and he had, for
one thing, taken up tin-mining. He had some
house property. With the Chinese aptitude to
seize on what would produce money, he had
obtained spawn of tench, and when the fish were
hatched and grown fit to eat had sold them at a
good price, as the Chinese are very fond of this
fresh-water fish, and had not previously been able
to get them. On the return of his wife and himself
he was taking with him a gardener, to look after
his garden in Kwala Lumpur.

68

The Chinaman Abroad.

This is a typical case of how the Chinese is
able to get on in the world, and more especially
so when he places himself in the midst of new
surroundings, when he takes advantage of all the
openings which present themselves to him’ to make
an honest penny.

The Chinaman not only goes abroad to foreign
lands; he also goes abroad in his own land, for
to travel into another province, or often even into
another part of his own province, is in reality
a going abroad to the Chinaman. To begin with,
he may find the language different, and unless
there is a large community of those from his own
country-side, he is thrown amongst those who,
though of his own race, are distinct from him in
many a custom, and foreign to him’ in many ways.
In fact, he is a stranger in his own land> and many
a time he feels it too.

At all the treaty ports, up and down the coast of
China', and up the mighty rivers, colonies of Can-
tonese are to be found as shopkeepers, merchants,
and chmpradores to foreign firms. These, when
old age arrives or infirmities set in, return to their
own country-sides ; or their coffins carry their
remains, should death ensue before the looked-for
return is undertaken. In Hong Kong are found
Amoy and Swatow merchants, and even Ningpo
and Shanghai men, as well as others from more
distant parts of the vast Empire.

There are doubtless many Chinese who never
leave their native village or its immediate neigh-

69 F

John Chinaman Abroad

bourhood; but there are numbers who have been
far afield either within or without the confines of
the Celestia.1 Empire in search of the almighty
dollar. It seems a strange thing, but it has been
hitherto the general rule, that however the foreign
civilisation has affected him when abroad, when
he returns the Chinaman is a Chinaman again.
In most cases the influence of travel seems imper-
ceptible, though it must have had a larger
leavening influence than the foreigner, who finds
it hard to see below the surface when a Chinaman
is concerned;, will allow. He returns to his native
village, and to all outward appearance he is the
same man as he was before, though indications
are sometimes to be seen that his sojourn abroad
has had some influence on him, and this is getting
to be more and more the case.

The Chinaman’s adaptability to all climates and
conditions is marvellous. He has all conditions in
his own land. In the extreme north of China the
winters are arctic in their intensity, the rivers being
frozen over. Throughout China the heat in
summer is tropical, the duration being shorter in
the north, though the heat is as great if not greater
as one goes up the coast. Thus when he goes
abroad it is seldom that John Chinaman comes
across conditions that are not to be found in his
own land, though at the same time the individual
Chinamfan may not have experienced them in
his own person. His general frugality and
abstemiousness have probably something to do with

70

Chinese Emigrants

his being able to endure what others cannot.
Added to this is his general good-nature, which
enables him to bear up under adverse circum-
stances, when others of a less happy disposition
would give way to their troubles.

John Chinaman starts on his travels abroad at
the rate of considerably over two hundred thousand
a year, and about half of these go to the Straits
Settlements. There is scarcely a country in the
world which has not at least one or two Chinese
in it. There are only three counties in England
which have not a Celestial in them. There are two
hundred Chinese students in London alone. There
must be at least between three and four millions
abroad in different parts of the world, amount-
ing in number to the population of a small
European state. There are numbers of these who
have not only left their country voluntarily for
their own good as well as that of their country,
but also to the good of the countries to which
they have gone; for they benefit the countries
to which they migrate, as they do their own
country when they return. Amongst them there
may be a few who are not desirable immigrants.
It is a pity, however, that the evil conduct of some
scapegraces, or in some cases even criminals, who
have managed to emigrate, should cause the whole
race to be unjustly judged.

7 *

CHAPTER VII

John Chinaman’s Little Ones

C HINA is the land of children. No Malthusian
law deters the multiplication of the human
race there. All boys are heartily welcomed on
their arrival into this world, and none are at once
assisted out of it again, unless there be some con-
genital defect which makes their presence unde-
sirable. With girls it is a different matter ; they
are unacceptable, and not to be mentioned in the
enumeration of one’s children, though the poetical
name of “ a thousand pieces of gold ” is given to
them. However, a metaphorical shower of gold
of this nature is not desired. If means are ample,
they are endured, though not wanted. The ravages
of famine, the devastations of floods, straitened
circumstances, the local customs, are all factors
in the determination whether the child, if of the
wrong sex, shall stay in this world or only be
here a few minutes or hours or days.

It is absurd to argue that infanticide is no more
prevalent in China than in England ; or to
describe it as a curse of the land, which devastates
whole districts. Let it be granted at once that

72

Infanticide and Slavery

most Chinese parents would wish their children
all to be boys ; and if such could be the case,
there would probably not be a country on the face
of the globe where infanticide was so rare — even
though in such a case there would, in the course of
a few generations, be no infants at all, and the
whole race would die out. It is doubtless true,
however, that cases have been known where, so
prevalent was infanticide, that locally girls could
not be obtained for marriage, and, as with the
Sabines of old, other districts had to provide them.
In some country-sides in China the crime is terribly
prevalent ; in others it is caused by adverse
circumstances, being the inevitable result of bad
harvests, a famine, or flood ; and it ceases in
such places, to a great extent, when the cause
has gone. Such disasters also cause a brisk
market for children. Even boys are sold at such
times, though it is mostly the girls who are eagerly
snatched up, in some cases for slaves, but very
often indeed to be brought up to a life of vice.

In the discussion of all these sulrjects in relation
to China, it must be remembered that a father has,
theoretically, the power of life and death over his
own children. Affection and public opinion prevent
the extreme exercise of it when the child is well
on in life, save in exceptional cases, when the son,
say, is a confirmed gambler or opium -smoker,
and a reprobate. But public opinion has but little
to say against a parent e.xen-ising his right over
a puling babe. Again, it must be remembered

73

John Chinaman’s Little Ones

that not all the tiny coripses floating, seawards on
China’s mighty rivers, or lying on the roadside,
or, indecently cast on a heap of rubbish with no
covering but a rotten piece of matting, are the
victims of child-murder. Ancestor worship is
largely responsible for this unpleasant phase of
Chinese life. This cult has no use for an infant,
and denies a tablet or other memorial to any un-
married unit of the human race, except in the case
of the boat population, who keep up their own
customs as distinct from those of the land people.
With this exception an infant is of no consec|uence
and requires no decent interment, and that in a'
country where everything connected with death is
deemed of the utmost importance to the living
as well as to the dead.

A kindly spirit (excuse the seeming irony from'
an English standpoint) prevents in a very few
cases the necessity, as the perpetrators of this in-
human crime would deem it, of actually killing
with their own hands the infant. An instance of
this came under, the eyes of the author at Chow
Chow Fu. Its most revolting features were
revealed in a hole under the city wall, where the
infants could be cast ; but not far distant hung
a basket, protected from' the fierce rays of the
sun by a piece of matting to form' a sloping roof
over it. In this basket any one bringing the
unwanted child could place it, and any who
wished to thus easily obtain an addition to the
family could ‘rescue it from its impending fate.

74

Parent and Child

In a country where heads fall off for several
crimes which are not visited with death in our
land;, no capital punishment is the award for the
crime of infanticide. Though every now and then
the mandarins issue proclamations inveighing
against it, and urging the. people not to commit it,
yet they do not set the machinery of the law in
operation, for the patria potestas is all powerful
in China. Every now and then there are instances
of the offended dignity of a disgraced parent
avenging itself on the un dutiful son with the
extreme penalty for disobedience. The father’s
life is not forfeit in such a case, though the act
may at times be considered as very excessive, for,
as has already been said, the father holds the life
of the child in his hands.

In China the expectant mother is not busy for
months preparing a layette for the dear one coming
to gladden the house ; for the little things are
simply wrapped in old rags and clothes belonging
to older people, and for a mnnth baby has no name.
Then a grand banquet is held, when relations and
friends are invited. The men gather at a
restaurant, and feast. The women eat and drink
by themselves in the house. Congratulations are
offered and presents given to the child.

The milk -name is now bestowed on the child, the
first name he or she receives. This clings to him^
or her through li^fe, being used by parents, relatives,
and most intimate friends, as well as by superiors.
This first name that a m'an or a woman possesses

75

John Chinaman’s Little Ones

is not sufficient for a Chinaman, and even before
the child is grown up the boy will have another,
in the shape of a school-name. He signalises every
great event in life, such as marriage and official
appointment, by a new name, so that by the time
he ends life he has some three or four names to be
known by. One gets acquainted with a Chinese
by one name, and then later on learns that he has
another, and is now known by the other instead
of by the first, which with difficulty one has fixed
in one’s memory, and a new effort of memory is
required for the new name. On or after the
bestowal of the name the child is properly dressed
in a short little jacket and pair of trousers open
back and front. The jacket is often gay with
colours. No long white robes and delicate lace
are seen. Very little children often wear a
garment which reminds one of Joseph’s coat
of many colours, being of the pattern of a patch-
work quilt.

Paradoxical as it may seem after what has been
said, it is nevertheless the truth that the Chinese
have a large share of natural affection for their
children. The pride that the fathers and the
grandfathers take in the toddling wee things is
one of the pleasantest sides of Chinese human
nature, of which there are many very pleasant
aspects. The surest way to gain golden opinions
from the street crowds in China is for the foreigner
to take notice of the little darlings with their
winning ways.

76

The Children’s Ways

The little ones almost as soon as they can speak
are taught to address the stranger by his proper
title and with the respect proper to his station
in a bold, clear voice. The quaint mixture of
oldish ways and the frank childishness of the
toddling youngsters is very charming. Little old-
world dolls, little grown-up men and women, but
yet with the chubby, round, innocent faces of child-
hood, they look up at you with wonder on their
features, tinged perhaps with a little fear, and
most gravely inquire, “ Sir, have you eaten your
rice yet? ” Or with a clear piping voice they
wish you “ Good morning.”

Quaint little mites of humanity ! Droll speci-
mens of the human race ! Millions and millions
of small editions of John Chinaman the Elder have
been schooled into Oriental ways and Far Eastern
manners, till the little ones seem’ but replicas of
the grown-ups ; but with that soupgon of the child-
world still clinging about them', with its delicate
suggestiveness of other -worldliness.

Babydom is very much the same in the Far
East as in the Far West. Nursery rhymes are
abundant — one collection of six hundred has been
made. Baby’s mind and baby’s ears are very
much the same, whether his father and mother
have given him a white skin or a yellow, and
baby’s father and mother, nurse and sisters, as well
as aunties and grannies, know what to sing to
please him, soothe him, and quiet his peevishness,
whether they live on one side of the globe or the

77

John Chinaman’s Little Ones

Other.. Is it strange if the little morsels should
sometimes say in the language which father and
mother understand so well, “ My little body is
a-weary of this great world”? and need those
delightful little songs to make them' forget all their
little troubles? Wondrous like some of them are
to our English nursery songs, while many of them
have the colouring of the East, and reflect the
manners and customs of the Orient. It seeta's
curious to us, doubtless, to find the following
verdict passed on the Chinese nursery song, but
it is given by one who knew what he was saying,
and it is this : “ There is no language in the
world, we venture to believe, ^ which contains
children’s songs expressive of more keen and
tender affection.”

It is astonishing what an amount of enjoyment
Chinese children can get out of life, though the
Chinese for ages past have done their best to fit
old heads on young shoulders. Their school-books
have taught them that there is no profit in play ;
centuries of repression have made them* quiet
children. Under the old system, they were shut
up from sunrise till five o’clock in the afternoon at
school, sitting on hard wooden benches, each sing-
songing his lesson at the top of his voice.

The old books were fit only for grown-ups to
pore over and study. The “ Four Books ” and
the “ Five Classics ” were learned by heart, if
the boy stopped long enough in school-life ; then
he learned to compose essays based on the claissfcs

78

Schools and Toys

and to write poems. These, until the last few years,
formed the sum-total of Chinese education, and
they are little fitted for the youthful brain. But
now a more rational system, based on that of the
West, is being' adopted throughout the land. There
have been no story-books, no allegories, no boys’
books of adventure, no thrilling tales of heroes
or heroines to enchant boys and girls in their
leisure hours. It is only of late years that, thanks
to the missionary, “ Robinson Crusoe ” and a few
other books suited to the young have been made
available. Now, with the new education, books
adapted to the young are taking the place of the
antiquated lesson -books.

There are toys, to be sure, but the majority are
rude and uncouth, compared with the finished
products which gladden the hearts of our young-
sters. There are no skipping-ropes, no cricket,
no football, no rocking-horses, no hoops. Shuttle-
cocks there are, but no battledores, and they are
as much if not really more for the grown-up men
than the boys, though the boys kick them, to get
into practice, so as to be able to play properly
when they become men. There are small wooden
cannon and a few brass ones ; rude swords made
of wood or pasteboard, and tridents and halberds
made of pasteboard, wood, or bamboo ; kites,
too — but these belong as much to the repertoire of
men’s games— pas tel )oard mandarins, earthen roast
pigs (money-boxes) glorious in red paint and gilt.
These pigs are made in all sizes, with a slit in the

79

Jolm Chinaman’s Little Ones

back for the copper cash to be dropped in, and when
the pig is full there is a glorious smash to get the
money out. There are some clumsy iron marbles,
which the Chinese boy shoots by pulling one finger
back with another, and then letting it go like a
spring. There are a number of rather pretty and
ingenious things made of tin and bright metal,
little rattles, two beads attached to short strings
fly against the tin instrument as its handle is twirled
round in the hand, small fly-cages, little spillikin
weapons consisting of tridents, &:c. Pretty little
whirligigs are made of red-coloured fluted paper.
There are tops which come into play at certain
seasons of the year, for the toys in China, as in
our Western lands, have their proper seasons.

There are a few toy-shops in the big cities,
but there are also stalls where certain primitive
toys are spread out for sale, and where for a
cash or two a purchase can be made by the
toddling little youngster, or by a grown-up person
on his behalf. But the season when all these
places overflow with a plethora of these delights
of childhood is the China New Year, the time of
all times, not only for the little ones in China
but for every one from the oldest to the youngest ■;
for then every one becomes a child again, and
plays and enjoys himself to the utmost. Besides
the shops and stalls, there are the hawkers of
toys, who go about the streets selling them.

Chief almost of all is the ping-pom man, with
his pretty white and red glass ping -poms, ranging

8o

Toys and Toy-makers

from tiny little ones to great big ones. They
consist of a tiny tube of glass which widens out
into a closed cup, the shape somewhat of the, cup
for playing our Western game of cup and ball,
but the cup portion is closed with a thin film of
glass. The end of the tube is put in the mouth,
and by gentle blowing out and breathing in the
tiny diaphram of glass vibrates with a' sound like
ping-pom, to the immense delight of the children.
Too strong a breath breaks the .glass, and a rough
hand smashes the whole affair, so frail is it.

Another peripatetic toy-man is the maker of paste
images. He has a stick of bambooi fon his ground-
work, and he deftly works on to the end of it a
little image of man or woman, about three inches
high. He has little accessories to put into their
hands ; and now it is a warrior, with spear pr
sword, in all his panoply, eager for battle ; now
his skill produces a domestic ; and thus he goes
on modelling and colouring his little figures,
while an admiring crowd gathers round him, and
sees him create his little manikins as hp stands
in the street.

But notwithstanding all this, what child is there
that cannet make toys for: himself? And little
John Chinaman is not behind the rest of the world
in this respect. A few sticks and stones, a corner
of the house or a bit of a garden, and there is his
paradise, where he makes believe and lives a perfect
life in the childish Kingdom' of Pretend, where
he is full of the richest joys, incomprehensible

8i

John Chinaman’s Little Ones

to his elders, who often sweep away all his most
real pretendings with most unfeeling hands and
unseeing eyes. Though the China boy does not
actually need toys, any more than any other child
does, they help' him on wonderfully in the world in
which he lives — a world which the stupid grown-
ups can no more understand than his childish mind
can comprehend theirs.

With girls — but what are girls in China? Even
the nursery rhyme says virtually, Of what use is
a girl?

keep a dog to watch the house,

A pig is useful too ;

We keep a cat to catch a mouse,

But what can we do
With a girl like you ?

Of course some of the toys mentioned above are
used by girls ; but kites and shuttlecocks and
tops are not girls' toys in China, and really jit
comes to very few indeed that they can amuse
themselves with, for there are no dolls. Just think
of it ! No dolls to dress and undress, and learn
all a mother’s ways ahd tenderness by.

Then besides the toys there are also sweet-
meats on stalls or carried about the streets — so
many dififerent kinds, wheat-sprout toffee, pepper-
mint stick, so white and clean-looking and such
a contrast to the dirty fingers of the boy who is
selling it. Then there are kum-ying-ko^ like little
brown marbles, and as you suck them yp.u come
across little bits of the leaf v/hiQh flavours them

82

Infant Gamblers

in your mouth. There are many other nice things,
especially at New Year, when there is candied
cocoanut, and ginger and sugared bits of melons
cut in little squares and other shapes, and oranges
galore — all spread out and offered to every visitor,
so that the youngsters can munch them nearly
all day long.

There is also the pickle -hawker, with unripe
mangoes, carambolas, sliced cucumbers dripping
with vinegar, and set out in crocks so tempting
an d delicious to the Chinese child. But alas !
alas ! these tempting titbits are often made the
bait to lure the little innocent things on to gamble,
and the toddling little babies stake their cash as
to whether they shall gain or lose by the throw of
the dice or the turn of the wheel. No wonder
the Chinese are such ardent gamblers ; they are
brought up to it from babyhood with the memory
of sweet morsels or acid pickles.

It is not all sugar-plums and sweets, though, in
China'. Almost all the children are spoiled. They
will be petted to their hearts’ content, getting
everything they cry for, until some out-and-out
naughtiness rouses the ire of parent. Then all
the pent-up vials of wrath are broken on the
little one’s head. If he escapes without a slap
or a good beating he is fortunate.

Unlucky is the poor little slave-girl under such
circumstances. Tiny little things, some of them
are, sold into a family, tOi be the drudge of the
hopse, run errands, lo,ok after the children, aftd

83

John Chinaman’s Little Ones

do whatever they are told. Cliiiiese servants are
more a part of the family than in the West, and so
these slave-girls are in the family, and to a certain
extent of it ; but if they have a cruel mistress,
her cruelty will at times find its full vent on
these helpless creatures. They will be beaten till
they are covered with bruises. Not content with
that the brutes in human shape will sometimes
burn the slave’s skin with live incense sticks. The
abolition of this domestic slavery is one of the
reforms which China must soon take up if she
wishes to belong to the comity of civilised nations.
A beginning has already been made in this
direction.

The servitude of these domestic slave-girls is
not for life, for they, as a rule, are married off
by their mistresses when they attain a marriage-
able age.

The infant mortality, apart from deaths by
infanticide, must be awful in China. Instead of
at first giving the babe Nature’s provision for its
nourishment, tiny oblong sweet cakes are crammed
into the little mouth for several days. As the
child grows older manifold are the dangers that
assail it from injudicious diet. Then it has the
gauntlet of childhood’s diseases to run^ with but
little assistance from ignorant mothers, and from’
still more ignorant so-called doctor's, or old wives,
who perambulate the streets pretending to cure
infantile complaints.

It is a marvel that so many of them escape
84

Infantile Disorders

death, which seems lurking at every corner ready
for them. For the last hundred years the little
ones have been protected from' the ravages of
smallpox, which as an epidemic previously swept
like a plague over the land, devastating many
a home. Inoculation was in vogue before that.
Babies in China have, however, the monopoly of
vaccination ; for the Chinese have not yet learned
the utility of re-vaccination. Consequently nearly
every winter there are still a number of cases of
smallpox.

CHAPTER VIII

The Past of John Chinaman

O F all men John Chinaman has a past. Some
people are ashamed of their past, but John
Chinaman need not be ; fori his is a: glorious
past. He has taken full advahtage of it, and
lived in it for many centuries, even fot millenniums
long gone by. In truth, so long back has his
vision extended that until just recently he was very
short-sighted to many aspects of the present,
so accustomed had he become to only gazing with
ecstatic rapture on the golden ages of the sages,
instead of looking to the future or rejoicing in'
the present. His outlook is now extending, and
embraces a glorious future, though, unaccus-
tomed as he has made himself to look forward,
his vision is apt to be distorted. He sees men as
trees walking ; his perspective is uncertain. But
as the mists of the past dissolve, and as he adjusts
his sight to the new standpoint, the objects he
has in view will fall into their, true relationships
with their environments.

W!e, may open the page of histoiity at what correr

86

Early History

spends to our iWestern era of 2356 B.c. There
are volumes and pages before that ; but they are
very blurred, and the writing is indistinct. Age
has obscured the narrative ; legend and myth pre-
dominate, and are so blended with a substratum
of fact that the latter is obscured by the former,
so that it is well-nigh impossible to unravel the
thread of truth that may run through the tangled
mass, even for long after the date already
mentioned.

Even the Chinese will not believe all their
histories state. That they do not place implicit
reliance on all, may be seen by the quotation
from their classics in common use said to those
who rely implicitly on whatever is printed. The
sentence is : “It would be better to be without
The Book of History than to give entire credit
to it.”

What transcendent interest would attach to the
beginnings of a race like the Chinese if any
records of that distant past could be discovered I
Had the tribes which came into the land from,
say, the north-west and spread over it, only had
scribes or historiographers, and noted their
joumeyings, told their impressions, described the
new land, written down their numbers in hiero-
glyphic or cuneiform or tadpole-characters on rock
or stone or on clay -cylinders, what ali hiatus in
the world’s history would have been bridged over !
But, alas ! there seems nothing authentic to be
found, ht present, at all events.

87

The Past of John Chinaman

The Chinese do not, like the Hindoos, go back
to an era called “ The Unspeakable Inexpres-
sible,” which requires several pages full of cyphers
following a unit to express this inexpressible, or,
to be more precise, 4,456,448 cyphers after a
figure 1 . The Chinese ai^e content with 500,000
years for their mythological period.

There is one thing to be observed in the account
of the early eras which Chinese history reaches
out to embrace in its grasp. It has been very
well put, by one authority on the Chinese, as
follows : There is no hierarchy of gods brought
in to rule and inhabit the world ; ” they made “ no
conclave on Mount Olympus, nor judgment of the
mortal soul by Osiris ; no triansfer of human love
and hate, passions and hopes to^ the powers above ;
all here is ascribed to disembodied agencies or
principles, and their works are represented as
moving on in quiet order.”

How universal the belief in giants in olden
times appears to have been 1 Those in China:
were beneficent beings, though manlike, herculean
in strength and enormous in size. The great giant
Poon Kwu out-distanced all others, as he grew
six feet every day. As he lived 18,000 years, his
length of days must have kept pace pretty well
with his height. Mankind has benefited by his
labours to this day, as he hewed out the earth
from chaos with chisel and mallet. He was im-
mortalised by his transformation into the different
elements : his br'eath into winds and clouds ; his

88

Ancient Worthies

voice into thundei^ ; his perspiration into rain ;
while the mountains, the rivers, the fields, the
stars, the herbs and trees, the metals, rocks, and
precious stones were also formed from different
parts of his body, and last of all the parasites on
him became human beings. A trio of rulers
succeeded for another 18,000 y^ars, when a batch
of inventions, &c., took place, such as good govern-
ment, the art of eating and drinking, marriage,
and sleep. But we cannot follow the course of
true, or even false, Chinese history through all its
wonderful stories and narrations, and recount the
marvels that occurred in the reigns of Fu-hsi,
Yao, Shun, and Yu’s reigns, at which time, perhaps,
the present race of Chinese came into China.

The names of Fu-hsi and Sh^n-nung and
Hwang-ti stand out prominently as amongst the
greatest benefactors of the race, the last being
the reputed founder of this great Empire. In
Yu’s time the great deluge in China took place,
the precursor of many a subsequent and serious
overflow of the Yellow River. At that time China
enjoyed her golden age, and heaven even sent
showers of gold, which a more prosaic age will
probably suppose to be meteoric showers.

Yau, Shun, and Yii were a trio, of sages or
worthies, on which subsequent China has exhausted
her praise, and eulogium' caps eulogium in a de-
lineation of their perfect characters and virtues. By
reflecting their grandeur and nobility of character
and worth, Confucius, the Sage of all Sages in

89

The Past of John Chinaman

the Land of Sages, is exalted. Against the back-
ground of evil — a degenerate age compared with
China's golden age — he and Mencius shine with
all the lustre of those who, single-hearted and
noble of aspiration, work all their lives for the
good of their country.

Lao-tsz, another of earth's most noble men, left
his impress on his country and people, tincturing
their life-stream, as Confucius and Mencius have
done in time past and, though in a lessening
degree, still destined to do for time to come ;
their influence in the future will not be what it
has been hitherto — some of China's young students
are saying that they have no use for Confucius now.

A feudal age was this : scores pf contending
states warred amongst themselves. War was their
play ; but they played fast and loose with much
of what should have been held in solemn esteem ;
hence the strong disapproval of Confucius ; hence
the stem lectures of Mencius ; hence the terse
aphorisms of Lao-tsz. The country was politically
split up into small states ; little kingdoms with
petty tyrants as rulers. Out of the turmoil and
confusion one suzerain, or powerful state, rose to
the supreme power, and China consolidated into
a whole, the smaller kingdoms being, absorbed,
under the famous, or infamous, Tsun Shih Hwang
Ti. He was the builder of the Gre,at Wall, of
palaces, and public edifices, and the constmctor of
canals and roads ; alas ! also, the destroyer of
the books and literati. With overweening confi-

90

Succeeding Dynasties

dence, having, as he thought, destroyed all records
of the past, he called himself the First Emperor.
The tyrant’s hand was powerless ovet the memory
of those scholars who escaped the massacre meted
out to their fellows, and by their aid, assisted by
a few copies hidden away while the iconoclastic
storm raged, the ancient classics were restored
to China. Thus closes the ancient history of this
Empire.

After this Han and Tong and Sung and Yuen
and Ming and Tsing all succeeded each other in
the dynastic history of this great and mighty
Empire. They came and went, colouring with
their, distinctive features the land and the people.
The last dynasty has yellow for its royal hue.
Some might say jaundice and decay werle typified
by this ; and such a statement would not have been
amiss a few years since ; but now let us rather
hope with the uplift of China’ that it presages
a golden future.

Many a grand example has been shown to
descendants on the Imperial throne by those who
conformed to the precepts laid down in the ancient
Book of History, one of which runs as follows :
“ Order your affairs by righteousness, order them
by propriety, so shall you transmit a great example
to posterity.” Unfortunately posterity did not
always follow the example laid doiwn by the first
rulers of dynasties, with the result that ere long
a new dynasty arose, and swept aVay the corrup-
tion of the last. Time and again this occurred.

91

The Past of John Chinaman

Energy, vigour of action, uprightness of purpose,
signalised the rise of most of the many regal
houses in China. The introduction of fresh blood
into the royal palaces was aJ harbinger ,of hope
for the whole Empire ; but the rojal breed soon
deteriorated ggain, as effeminacy and luxury, con-
cubines and eunuchs exerted their influence. Is
not all this, as a skeleton, recorded in the thousand
and one histories in China, and flesh tints and
blood hues sparsely added d la Chinois? But, to
the European student who is not imbued with the
enthusiasm for the Orient and touched with the
glamour of the East, it is pretty much a: dead
past, which requires the vivifying influence of an
Occidental imagination tp breathe the breath of
life into the inanimate mass, and to collect the
bones, lying as debris in a valley of apparently
dry bones, into a corporate whole. Many pages,
however, of the thousands of volumes ai'e of great
interest, and were they not set up in an almost
dead language known to so few, they would not
be so unknown in the West.

The Chinese prize their past, and while the
present is fast transforming itself into that past,
the Imperial historiographers in Peking are busy
transcribing its momentous events for the future,
an unknown and indefinite future, in which at the
right moment — when the reigning dynasty has its
record closed, and not till then — the books will be
unsealed. Until then they are sealed books, and
not even the Emperor himself may know what is

92

Ancient Records

being written of Ms actions and deeds^ and whether
praise or blame is assigned to him and his pro-
genitors for the last three hundred years.

There seems something awe-inspiring in this
silent record, shut out from the knowledge of all,
ceaselessly going on, and no one able to add to
it, or alter it except those specially set apart for
the purpose. When those whose story is recorded,
and to whom' praise and blame have been assigned
—when these and all connected with them' are dead
and gone the books will be brought out, and
judgment delivered to future generations ; then
the censures and eulogies are first seen by the
public, when the remotest chance of suppression
of, or interference with, the truth has gone.

Not only are there general histories of China,
running up into hundreds of volumes, but special
periods are selected by those who are interested in
them, and treated of exhaustively.

One of the most interesting stories in China
is the historical novel, known as The History of
the Three Kittg^dpmis, and many of the Chinese have
learned more of history from’ it than from the real
history of the period itself. It deals with the
feudal times, and the intrigues and wars and the
doughty doings of some of China's most renowned
statesmen.

Long before our Saxon chroniclers were penning
their narratives, and before C^sar was describing
his invasion of our shores, Chinese historians were
gravely recounting their country's wonderful

93

The Past of John Chinaman

history, and the tale has been continued down to
the present day. The strangers within the gates
of this Empire from our Western lands who have
studied the Chinese historical works most — and
they are a score in number of the leading sino-
logues — speak highly of them. With all their im-
perfections they are far and away the best con-
tinuous history of any Asiatic people.

Amidst some of the most famous of the thousands
of histories extant in China may be mentioned
The, Book of History (one of the “ Five Classics ”),
The Bamboo Annals, and the great historical works
known as The Seventeen Histories, in two hundred
volumes. The Twenty -two Histories, The General
Mirror of History, History Made Easy, and The
Historical Memoirs .

As one writer has well said : “ The Emperor
and his ministers fill the whole field of historic
vision ; little is recorded of the condition, habits,
arts, or occupations of the people, who are merely
considered as attendants of the monarch, which
is, in truth, a feature of the ancient records of
nearly all countries and peoples.” i Events which
must have been of thrilling interest, if noticed at
all, are dismissed with a word or two. No wonder
the Chinese histories, so meagre in detail at first,
develop into many volumes eventually, as the
dynasties are twenty -five in number, only reckoning
from: B.c. 2205 with a duration of 164 or 165
years on an average to each d5masty for the 4, 1 1 7
' Williams, p. 154.

94

Picturing the Past

years. The sovereigns during that period were
225, thus giving an average of a little over eighteen
years to each emperor. The present dynasty has
lasted for 267 years, with ten monarchs, two of
whom occupied the throne for sixty years. The
second who reigned so long might have gone on
still longer as ruler of this mighty nation, but con-
sidered it an act of filial piety to abdicate, so as
not to exceed the time his grandfather reigned.

How difficult it is to throw oneself back into
bygone times, and try in thought to live the life
which lies buried in the past, a phase or two of
which has been caught and preserved in the books !
Doubly difficult is it for the Occidental to picture
the past of the East, though a life lived in that
quarter of the world helps him' to a better realisa-
tion of it ; for the conditions in the Far East have
not changed so vastly between the past and the
present as they have in the Far West.

A residence in the Far East also assists the
Westerner to appreciate better what life must have
been in his own land in the mediseval ages, as the
current of events flows in pretty much the same
channels, or has done up to the present, at one
extremity of the world as it did in the other
extremity, some five hxmdred years ago. The
conditions of life, the difficulties of travel, and
many other aspects of existence, are all reminiscent
of the accounts the Englishman has read of how
his own countrymen, in common with, the rest of
Europe, lived in the time of Chaucer, and later.

95

The Past of John Chinaman

Much has disappeared for ever from the records of
the past both in the East and West; and left many
gapS; though with the fewer changes that have
taken place in China; the past is better compre-
hended than it is with us ; for the present, to an
enormous extent, has been simply a continuation
of what has gone on before. In the main, things
have been the same for centuries as they were
ages ago. The thoughts of the ancients crystallised
into the classics, which hundreds of years ago had
the fixed light of the Commentaries of Cha-Hsi
turned on them', the sentiments of these old-world
sages still prevailing ; the customs and manners
have been based on the ancient Book of Rites;
the same primitive plough, rake, and mattock of
prehistoric times are in the hands of the farmer.
The Chinese still lives in the cities that his
forefathers built centuries ago ; the same old
crenelated walls circle them ; the same narrow
streets strike through them’ from gate to gate,
or wriggle with sharp angles round the corners.
The same temples, many of them built centuries
ago, are scattered here and there, hidden among
the low-lying houses, ti^d up, as it were, in the
little intricate knots of evil -smelling alley -ways,
set down where it needs an expert to find them'.
The same old gods looking down from behind
the flimsy curtains, and through the clouds of
incense on the worshippers, as generation after
generation have come before them with their woes
and joys — ^in grief with lamentations, hnd in joy

96

Unchanged and Changing

with exultation of heart and with thanksgjivings .
The ancient styld of the houses is still adhered
to— the changes being but slight, glass gradually
taking the place of the oyster -shell or the oiled
paper.

And a;ll these things must enable the Chinese
to picture their past far more easily than we
can ours, where nearly everything is changed so
completely, not only as regards the furnishing for,
and providing of, our daily wants, but also as
concerns our mental apparelling and pabulum.

But this is evidently all to be changed in the
future. The tendency is towards change, for even
now a beginning is being made in the demolishing
of the relics of the past. It is to be hoped that
this will not be allowed to be carried to too great
an extent ; for a day will come when, as in the
West, it will be difficult without special study to
picture the past, to give it a living reality, to
bring it vividly before the mind, and see it as it
was.

Proposals have been made with regard to some
cities to throw down their walls and turn them
into boulevards, as in Paris ; in Nanking a good
carriage road has been made,; an embankment
is constructed on the river-front in Canton, and
other improvements of a like nature are taking
place ; so that when the present in China changes
to the past, it will in the future be a different
past from what the present past has been.

John Chinaman was very self-contained in his

97

The Past of John Chinaman

past. He jostled against his neighbours, to bte
sure, but he gave tnore than he took in the process,
arid held himself vvith the pride which such a
free imparting necessarily produces. From small
beginnings the Empire grew, spreading out ; now
restricted, now divided, now united, and surging
forward and extending still further the realms,
till in the Tang they reached the Caspian. China
has had her invasions, as well as invaded other
countries. All the neighbouring nations have felt
the force of her arms, and her prowess has broken
many an insurrection. Her own people have ruled
her through most of her history, but Tartar,
Mongol, and Manchu have all had their turn, and
the latter is still the ruling power. It may truly
again be said tha;t China’s past is not one to he
ashamed of ; on the contrary it is one the people
may well be proud of.

The present is a crucial period in China. The
revolution now taking place is affecting the whole
aspect of national life ; history is being made
rapidly. The new patriotism is arming thousands
of the young Chinese with valour, and thrilling
them with ardour to do or die at their country’s
call.

98

CHAPTER IX

The Mandarin

T he word mandarin (the last vowel pro-
nounced as ee) is derived from the Portu-
guese word mandar, to command, and means the
members of the body of officials who have the
power and right to govern the people.

Mandarindom' is retruited from the ranks of the
people; it is not hereditary, but those who fill
it are by merit raised to that high eminence. It
is not a nobility, but is simply the higher ranks
of the civil, military, and naval services. Not
every official is a mandarin, but every mandarin
is an official.

There is nothing in our Civil Service externally
to distinguish officials ; but a mandarin is clad in
gorgeous robes of silk and satin, wears sL red-
torded hat, and, to cap all, a button, as it has
been termed, at the apex of his conical-shaped
hat. It is called a button by courtesy, although
it is not a button at all, but a round ball, like the
gilt ball tfiat surmounts some military helm;ets,.

99

The Mandarin

It is in some cases ^ elongated into a spike-shaped
termination to the hat^ as^ again, on other helmets.
The mandarin wears these robes and hat on all
occasions when in the public performance of his
official duties. He is not compelled, like the
private soldier with us, always to appear in
uniform, for he may appear in mufti when off
duty.

Of these so-called buttons there are nine
different kinds, or rather there are nine different
grades of those who wear them'. The colour
and material of these appendages to the hat show
forth the rank of the wearer. Three of the lowest
grades of rank are represented by buttons iden-
tical, or nearly so. The status of these three
classes are shown by the round knobs on their
hats being of gold — plain gold in the seventh and
worked gold in the two lower ranks. The highest
ranks have a ruby and coral button respectively;
then come a sapphire and a lapis lazuli; and next
a crystal and white stone.

The position which the high official holds as
regards the nine divisions is also set forth in the
embroidered robe. A square of embroidery in the
front and back of the long gaberdine, or robe, is
in the case of the civil mandarins worked with
birds for decoration. These birds are the crane,
golden pheasant, peacock, wild goose, silver
pheasant, egret, and others, each serving to show,
as in the case of the buttons, the rank which the
official who wears them’ has attained.

lOO

ROOM IN GOVERNOR'S VAMEN.

Insignia of Mandarins

In the case of the army and navy (which have
been hitherto considered as one service), wild
beasts are used, as more typical of the position
of such officers. Until lately combatant officers
were considered vastly inferior to their brethren of
the civil service, though both branches of the
services unite in having the same kind of girdle-
clasps. To one well versed in these distinctions
in dress, there is no difficulty in being able to
differentiate between the rank of the wearers, oc
to distinguish between the peace officials and those
whose business is war.

Besides the buttons and other insignia of rank,
mandarins, instead of the orders with which our
Government servants arc rewarded, have varying
Imperial presents or privikiges granted them, such
as the yellow riding-jacket, permission to ride
within the palace gates. See. In addition almost
every high offitial wears the single-eyed or the
double-eyed peacock feather, which is affixed to
the back of the official hat, and slopes down over
the neck.

The mandarin bears no sword as the insighia
of his work- it is no part of the court dress, as
in our Western nations, and this is emblematical
of the Chinese attitude towards the sword and
all that it connotes, or is the emblem of. It is
taken up by those whose business it is to use
it, when it is considered to be necessary to draw
it in warfare, but it is not constantly worn at the
side ready for action. It has not been, as in our

lOI H

The Mandarin

countries at one time, part of a g'entleman’s dress.
In fact, it was rather derogatory to the gentleman
to have anything to do with such a war -like
weapon. What place the renaissance of China
may give to the sword remains to be seen, but it
is at present against the Chinese spirit to glorify
such an emblem of destruction. The military
career has been hitherto despised as a low calling
compared with civil employment.

A high official is supposed to be a man of
weight in China ; for his sedan-chair is borne
by eight coolies, while a decrease in rank only
entitles to four bearers, and the lowest officials are
carried, as every one may be, by two. A little
procession attends the goings -out and comings -in
of the higher mandarins. “ The usual attendants of
the district magistrate are lictors with whips and
chains — significant of the punishments they inflict ;
they are preceded by two gong-bearers, who every
few moments strike a certain number of ” great
blows on their gongs, “ to intimate their master’s
rank, and by two avant-couriers, who howl out
an otder for all to make room for the great man.
A servant bearing aloft a loh^ or state umbrella,”
“ also goes before him, further to increase his
display and indicate his rank.” A subordinate
“ usually runs by the side of his sedan, and his
secretary and messengers, seated in more ordi-
nary chairs, or following on foot, make up the
cortege. Lanterns are used at night, and red
tablets in the daytime to indicate his rank.”

102

Way for the Great

Officers of higher ranks have a few soldiers in

addition. I

It will thus be seen that there is much of pomp
and circumstance about the Chinese mandarin’s
life. When he stirs out of his yamen on official
duties or to pay a ceremonial call, a salute of three
guns is fired, which informs the whole city that
the ‘‘ great man ” is going out. When the highest
officials pass through the streets, all traffic is sus-
pended, and the populace line the sides of the
narrow streets even before the procession comes,
none daring to walk down the open space left
in the centre until the great and awful magnate
has passed, when the busy street resumes its wonted
aspect.

While awaiting his coming the loud booming of
the deep-toned gong announces his advent. Per-
fect silence reigns supreme, only broken by the
cries of his attendants, as their shouts clear the
way from any possible misapprehension of their
master’s greatness. There is no cheering, no
lifting of hats, for the good reason that the majority
have no hats to lift in summer, and at all times in
China it would, according to their etiquette, be
rude to bare the head before a superior, unless
the hat be a common felt hat or a workman’s
enormous bamboo one. Even if the dignitary be a
popular official, this dead, undemonstrative silence
prevails, though a petition may occasionally be
thrown into his chair. No notice is taken by the
* Williams, i. pp. 503-4.

103

The Mandarin

great man ” himself of what passes before his
eyes : he sits impassive as a Buddha^ utterly de-
tached, it would appear, from all his surroundings,
and to all appearance apathetic and untouched
by what he may see, seeing, but not apprehending
— dead, one would think, to all mundane affairs.
Such is considered the proper attitude for a
mandarin to assume.

The Cantonese Viceroy, Yeep, who was taken
prisoner by the English and carried to India, on
nearing Calcutta, at the termination of his voyage,
felt no interest to all outward appearance in his
surroundings, and evinced no desire to see the new
land to which he had come. Nevertheless he was
suddenly surprised, by some one unexpectedly
coming into his cabin, in the act of gazing out
of the port-hole. He had clambered there to get
a view of the strange city and land to which he
was coming. Chinese mandarins are men after
all, but they are not expected to show it to the
public.

A curious feature in a mandarin’s procession
is the great screen-like fan on a pole which is
carried before him by one of the retinue. If the
procession of another mandarin is met, and, as
one of our poets writes.

Beneath the Imperial fan of state
The Chinese Mandarin

is seen, then if superiority of position does not
demand recognition and the necessary delay, the

104

An Arduous Life

gigantic fans in each procession are interposed
hastily by their bearers between the two officials,
and the fiction of not having seen each other is
acted on.

The life of an official in China, if he occupies
a high position and rules over a populous district
of country, is arduous in the extreme. He knows
no hours. His work is never done. He is up
before dawn, and official receptions take place in
the small or early hours of the morning. The
health of many a man is injured by the incessant
toil and unremitting anxiety. His only long
holiday is when his father or mother dies ; then
he has to resign office nominally for three years —
the period of a son’s mourning for his parents —
but really only for twenty -seven months. A few
feast-days may give him some amount of respite,
and a month at New Year some degree of rest,
when his seal is given over to the custody of
his wife, where it would be difficult for any rascal
to obtain it and use it wrongfully. His only chance
of retirement is on account of ill-health, and it
has to be so pronounced as to render him: unfit
for public toil ; repeated requests for permission to
retire on the score of illness are often refused.

Not only is the mandarin often hard- worked,
harassed with many cares, and loaded with
responsibilities, but also his tenure of office is in-
secure. He is subject to blame for no fault of
his own, such as, for instance, an extensive con-
flagration in the city which is the seat of the

105

The Mandarin

giovernment he is in charge oT, or a famine in
the country, or a flood. He is bound to report all
these. Should he put on too tight a pressure
to raise money, and exceed the usual amount of
taxation to which people under him have been
accustomed, then all the shops in the aggrieved
portion of the city may be closed as a protest
against his exactions, and he must hasten to
reduce his extortionate demands, lest the report
of it should reach head-quarters. He has enemies
all round him who, if he has offended them or
passed them over, or if he stands in their way,
are ready to magnify his peccadilloes, and report
his flagrant crimes or dereliction of duty. When
reporting his own shortcomings, he asks that
punishment may be meted out to him' for his
misrule in allowing such calamities and disasters,
as mentioned above, to visit the people under
his charge. This curious custom is carried so
far that the occupant of the throne himself
publicly confesses to his people, when any
disasters occur, that they are the result of his
shortcomings .

The poor mandarin often has a bad time; for
there is a body of censors, officially appointed,
whose duty is to pounce upon him and bring any
misdeeds, sometimes fancied, sometimes real, to
the notice of the Son of Heaven himself. Nor,
indeed, has it been unknown that some brave and
noble censor who has had the weal of his country
at heart, has even dared to point out to the occupant

io6

The Way to Office

of the Dragon Throne his— the Emperor’s— mis-
deeds.

It is not imCpossible for some enemy^ high in
power, to ruin the mandarin, by procuring frequent
promotions for him. Scarcely is he settled in a
position at one extremity of the Empire, when he
may have to travel across to the other extreme ;
and this may be repeated to different distant
provinces. The poor official’s funds and resources
will be then more than exhausted, and ruin stare
him in the face. Such a case has occurred before
now.

Every native-born American may rise to be
President of the United States, so every Chinese
youth, unless he belongs to the prohibited classes
(such as the barber, the play-actor, the yam^n-
runner, and until recently the boat -man, all to the
third generation), may rise to the highest position
in the Empire, short of the throne itself. The road
is through education. This is the incentive offered
to every budding schoolboy, the motive that spurs
on the flagging energy of the worn-out student,
the goal which the graduate may hope to attain.

The naval and military mandarin has gained
his position, till quite recently, by athletic prowess,
hence his inferior standing. Brains have been at
a discount in these branches of the Government
service. This is now being changed.

The military mandarin has the power of life
and death in his hands, for martial law prevails
in the army. It is thus not only in the time of

107

The Mandarin

war that the Chinese soldier carries his life in
his hands, but in the time of peace as well ; for if
he be guilty of any crime, off goes his head in
a twinkling.

Bribery and corruption reign rampant in China,
as they do in most Asiatic countries. A premium
is put on the system, as the salaries and allow-
ances given even to the highest officials are not
sufficient to meet the current expenses of the estab-
lishments they have to keep up. A viceroy ruling
millions of people will have a salary, the equivalent
of that paid to a European clerk or mercantile
assistant in Hong Kong or Shanghai. He gets a
few“ allowances, to be sure, but these are also on
a small scale. True, he has his yamen^ that is,
courts, prisons, offices, barracks, and private resi-
dence, all in one large congeries of buildings —
a maltam in parvo — but all these need to be kept in
repair in a trying climate which, with the aid of
white ants, seems determined to ruin a building
as soon as possible. He has tO' maintain his body-
guard and numerous servants — a plurality of
servants is a necessity in the East. He has to
support his family, and it is probably a large one,
with n^t a few wives and many children. He
gets no ' pension, and so has to make enough to
permit him to spend his old age in comfort and
ease. He must pay the travelling expenses for
himself and family and suite, as well as servants,
from his last appointment, or from Peking, and
it may be a journey of hundreds or thousands of

io8

The Omnipresent Bribe

miles by land or river or sea. Also money must
be saved up for presents to superiors^, or even
to the highest and most august personages in the
Empire on the expiry of his present term of
office.

How can all these expenses be met out of the
paltry pay assigned to the office;, even supple-
mented as it is by a few allowances ? The neces-
sary consequence is that all officials;, with the
rarest exceptions, are only too glad to receive
presents from not only the officials under them, but
from litigants and from whoever may have any
request to make, or who is in any way brought
into contact with the “ great man.” An honest
mandarin, perfectly free from bribes and presents,
finds himself hampered on all sides by a want of
the money required for his needful expenses, and
he dies not only poor, but deeply in debt, leaving
his family in abject poverty. He, however, has
the esteem' of the whole country; encomiums from
high and low arc showered on his head, and
fragrant is his memory.

And yet the people foster and condone the
very system they condemn by their approval of
an honest official. It seems inbred in the bones
of the man from the Far East to give presents
and offer gifts. The present opens the way to
a request, and paves the roafl for tlic asking of
a favour. The Western oflicial in the liast dreads
the advent of a present : timeo Datiaas et dona
jerentes, Tlie only way to stop them is to set

109

The Mandarin

one’s face as a flint against them, no matter how
insignificant, valueless, or worthless they may be,
when connected in any way with one’s official duties
or life. It is the only safe course to pursue.
Though there is so much corruption in China, there
are not a few officials in China who have the
welfare of their people at heart, and who try to
rule as well as they can.

A semi-official newspaper published in Peking
informs us that “ The Chinese Government has
decided to fix the emoluments and expenses of all
officials, metropolitan and otherwise, and to forbid
them to make extra money clandestinely. It has
further decided to allow the officials of places
along the coast double the pay of those in the
interior. It is hoped that this reform will be
put into force at no distant date.” This is good
news, and it is to be hoped that it will really
soon be put into force and be a death-knell to
corruption, or at least the beginning of the end
of the miserable state of affairs connected with
mandarindom in China.

The rank of mandarins is sometimes thrown
open to aspirants to the honours of such exalted
positions in the most curious ways, according to
our notions of the fitness of things. If the Govern-
ment is short of money, wealthy men may purchase
rank, and be entitled to wear the robes, buttons,,
and other insignia of the position. This is in-
veighed against every now and then by some
officials who see the harm of it. Again, the leader

no

Purchased Rank

of a rebellion is often bought over to the
Imperialist side by the promise of office ; and
if he has the faith to believe what is offered to
him he often reaps the reward of that faith, but
he sometimes pays for his belief with his life,
as it is not considered treachery to break one’s
word to an enemy of one’s country.

The maxim that all is fair in war is fully
believed in in the East. With those who purchase
rank it is often simply the position and status
that the money has obtained, and the right to
appear on all occasions of ceremony in the robes
and insignia that appertain to the rank pur-
chased, though in some cases office itself is
obtained. These recipients of official rank do not
have the honour and the respect of their fellows
which is accorded to those who have obtained
the position by hard study and examination. In
fact, there is .a certain feeling of contempt for
them. There is no caste in China, though an
Emperor’s son tried once to introduce it from
India, fortunately without success. .The nearest
approach to it is this class of mandarins, and
the literati, forming the body of cadets who become
the mandarins. There is also another class— -that
of the gentry. These are composed of gentle-
men, generally literati, and in this way the two
circles impinge. These gentry, let it be under-
stood, are not mandarins, but they have a good
deal to say in local matters, and .sit in councijl
on the affairs of the neighbourhood, and are looked

111

The Mandarin

to by the mandarins to keep a certain amount of
respectability and order in their neighbourhood
— in fact^ they assist the officials to some extent
in their governance of the people, as they are
looked upon, as said above, for the maintenance
of good order. Even in the villages this system'
is carried out, and the elders of the village form
a body who exercise a certain rule over their
village.

The Englishman goes abroad to foreign lands
to take up the white man’s burden ; the Chinese
mandarin also goes abroad to take up the yellow
man’s burden — ^the load of his own country’s
governance — for abroad it is to him in many a case,
as he travels to strange scenes, he settles amongst
those who talk a different language, and finds new
customs and habits of life prevalent. He requires
interpreters to understand what is being said, and
to interpret what he says to the natives of the
place.

The language in which the official business
is conducted is called Mandarin, and is spoken
over a large part of China. All mandarins, if
it is not their native tongue, learn it ; but it
is a foreign speech to many of them and often
badly spoken by those who thus acquire it.

A mandarin’s tenure of any particular office is
for three years, unless promotion comes sooner,
when there is another uprooting, and he is abroad
again, though at home in his own land ; for no
official is allowed to rule, except in the rarest cases,

112

Literary Pursuits

in his own native province, as the Chinese use every
safeguard to prevent favouritism. For this reason
he must not take a wife from amongst those he
rules over, nor are father and son allowed to hold
office in the same province. The son in such
cases gives way to the father. An instance has
just happened lately where a son was an intendant
of circuit in the Honan province, and his father
was appointed governor of that province. The
son had to be transferred to another part of the
country.

Many a mandarin comes up from the long
curriculum of study that is necessary to gain
success at the examinations (which are the doors
to the waiting-room for candidates to office) an
ardent student, and he employs what leisure he
has in literary labours and the composition of
verse. Many of the works that add to the lustre
of China’s literature are due to the pen of her
mandarins.

The official government of China is to the
stranger apparently a complex one ; but on a
closer examination of it, it will be found to be
more simple than was at first thought to be the
case ; and it is one which is, on the whole, well
.adapted to the people. In the provinces the
mandarins arc formed into different boards, or
committees of ways and means, for the depart-
ments or provinces over which they have sway.
In the metropolis, where the government centres
for the whole Empire, there are numerous boards,

”3

The Mandarin

which fulfil the functions of equivalent departments
of state and councils of one sort and another in
our Western lands. Attention has already been
called to one of the most curious of these, the
Censorate, composed of some forty or fifty
members .

A system of promotion and degradation is
established for officials, and the curious part of
it is that the mandarin, in the proclamations he
issues, details them. The fortunate, or un-
fortunate, man cannot hide his honours or his
disgraces, and the same individual has, if high
in the service, several of each to his name. He
first gives his surname, with the offices he holds,
and then he sets forth how many times he has
been promoted and how often degraded. It is
a well-understood thing. No one thinks any the
worse of him for it ; the one falls as much to
his lot as the other, if long in the service. Nor
can he avoid the one more than the other ; and
he may not be worthy of the one, nor to blame
for the other.

Already there are signs that the gorgeous East
will conform herself to the West more and more
in the future than she has done in the past :
already the naval officers of the modern warships
have adopted the Western style of uniform, for
flowing robes and silks and satins are not con-
gruous with the modem battleship. They may
be in unison with the old bizarre war-junk, all
gay with bright colours and streamers, but invisible

1 14

Naval Uniform

grey ironclads take a different dress, sober hues
are more in keeping with their sober colours. The
men also approximate more to the West in their
uniform, though there is enough of the East about
it to make it more picturesque, for a bit of
colour is imparted to it by the scarlet cummer-
bund round the waist of the sailors.

CHAPTER X

Law and Order

A n elaborate code of laws, in existence for
many centuries, is the ground-work which
governs the action of those who administer the
laws. As each new dynasty occupies the throne,
a new revision takes place, and a digestion of
the former code, and the result is a new edition
or version, the foundations of which were laid
twenty centuries since, when a simple code was
drawn up, based on an even still earlier and more
rudimentary system. The evolutionary process has
gone on all down through the ages. There have
arisen, of course, as different additions were made,
ambiguity, confusion, complications, intricacies and
inconveniencies, artificialities and complexities ;
but what complex and full system of law does
not contain within it all these faults? Take it
all in all, the Chinese penal code is admirably
adapted to the requirements of its teeming popu-
lation of law-abiding subjects, taking into con-
sideration the great difference in the fundamental
principles on which the superstructure is founded.'’

ii6

Guilt Presumed

The Edinburgh Review said of the code :
** We scarcely Imo.w any European code that is
at once so copious and so consistent, or that is
so entirely free from intricacy, bigotry, and
fiction. In everything relating to political free-
dom or individual independence it is indeed woe-
fully defective ; but for the repression of dis-
order and the gentle coercion of a vast population,
it appears to be equally mild and efficacious.”

It is not to be expected that, opposite to ,us
in so many things, the Chinese are at one with
us in all the principles underlying their laws. We
need not even travel to the other side of the
world to find the greatest differences between the
different nations in this respect. To take one
of the chief axioms that prevails in our law courts,
viz., that no man is guilty till proved to be so,
and its corollary, that the prisoner or defendant
is also, when once he has pleaded “Not guilty,”
in all his defence to pose as if he believed so
himself, while the magistrate or judge gives him
all the assistance he can in keeping' up the
semblance of innocence until he is proved guilty.

Almost the contrary principle prevails in China,
with, no doubt, the result that a less number of
guilty ones escape through the meshes of the law
than under the Bidtish system, though it is to
be feared that occasionally some innocent ones are
caught, and suffer for uncommitted crimes, perhaps
at times not a few. Were no other influences
brought into play than those which are seen, there

1x7 I

Law and Order

is no doubt the system' would work admirably,
and the well-being of the many be conserved.
The laws are divided into the lat, or fundamental
laws, and lai^ supplementary laws : the former
are permanent ; the latter, which are liable to
revision every five years, are the modifications,
extensions, and restrictions of the fundamental
laws. Each article of the fundamental laws has
been likewise explained or paraphrased by the
Emperor Yung Ching, and the whole of the text
is further illustrated by extracts from the works
of various commentators. These appear to have
been expressly written for the use and instruc-
tion of magistrates, and accordingly form a
body of legal reference directly sanctioned for
that purpose by the Government.”

To a certain extent the Chinese officials partake
more of the character of the commissioners or
collectors in our Indian Empire. There are judges
or, judicial commissioners, who ai^e few in number,
and of exalted position ; one serving for a
province, with twenty million or more inhabitants ;
almost all the other officials, from the district
magistrate upwards, perform judicial functions, as
well as fiscal and executive. From a court of
first instance, if the crime deserves it, the criminal
is passed on to higher tribunals, to fix his fetters
still stronger on him or to release his bonds.
The consequence of all this is that a large city
will contain several prisons attached to the quarters
and offices of different officials,

xi8

Prison Life

With nearly everything connected with Chinese
life, we must try and hark back to the condition
of our own country in not later times than that
of Queen Bess. Transferring ourselves in thought
to this period of our country’s history, what would
otherwise surprise us will appear perfectly reason-
able and natural.

It is not to be supposed, when the most
elemental laws of sanitation have been unknown,
that the prisoner will be treated with due regard
to considerations for his health or well-being.
Death, it is to be feared, claims some of his
victims sooner than he is entitled to, and snatches
them away before the formalities of the refer-
ence to Peking and the reply from the Throne
can be received. There is no proper supervision
of the prisons : no visiting justices make a per-
ambulation of them once a week, and listen to the
complaints of the prisoners. Gaolers are keen
on making the most they can from those com-
mitted to their mercy, or rather want of mercy.

The food supplied is not adequate, but every
facility is allowed to friends and relations to sup-
plement the meagre fare, which is not sufhcient
to keep soul and body together. A silver key is
necessary for any friends to gain access to a gaol,
and the gauntlet of all the rapacious warders and
guards can only be run with a full purse, pr
an effective closing up of ingress is enforced. The
prisoners are manacled in many cases, and herded
together in large numbers, with no employment

119

Law and Order

to ease the enforced confinement ; unshaven and
unshorn^ they present a hideous sight.

There are signs that this old regime is changings
and prison reform^ which has but scarcely begun,
will, we hope, ere long quite revolutionise the
whole system. Not only are the underlings in the
whole yamen open to the persuasive influence of
silver, but gifts pervert justice amongst even the
higher officials, and the longer purse is generally
able to win the day in the long run.

The extreme penalty of the law seems frequent
in its infliction, but let us remember that in the
time of our grandfathers, or fathers even, a man’s
life was of less account than a sheep’s and
hundreds were executed for stealing that animal.
Probably life is as secure, if not a good deal
more so, in China than it was in those days in
our own land when the sacredness of human life
was little respected.

“ Criminals guilty of extraordinary offences, as
robbery attended with murder, arson, rape, break-
ing into fortifications, highway robbery, and piracy,
may be immediately beheaded without reference ”
to the Throne. “ In ordinary cases the executions
are postponed till the autumnal assizes, when the
Emperor revises and confirms the sentences of
the 'provincial governors.” *

There are two modes of capital punishment-
decapitation and strangulation. Strangling is con-
sidered the less disgraceful ; so much so^ tliat
Williams, i. p. 512,

120

Torture

when an official is deemed worthy of death it
is an act of clemency for the Emperor to send
him a silken cord;, wherewith he may execute the
law privately on himself, and avoid a public death
at the hands of the public executioner.

There is a bit of untamed savagery in human
nature which asserts itself if the opportunity is
given it. This savagery found vent under the
name of religion in the Inquisition ; under the
name of the conservation of order it appears in
the most disorderly manner in a Russian
“ pogrom ” ; in the name of justice, in the most
unjust proceedings of an American lynching ; in
the name of an elucidation of the truth, in the
torture of a Russian police cell, or a Chinese court
of justice or prison.

Human nature is the same the wide world over,
and if the savage man has not his worse animal
traits of character tamed by the beneficent effects
of religion, calmed by self-control and a supreme
regard for justice in all its aspects, the result
is disastrous to his fellow-men should he have or
usurp authority over them. They all serve to show
—whether they be Russian pogroms,” Turkish
massacres, American lynchings, Roman Catholic
Inquisitions, English mob riots— how little a high
degree of material civilisation really avails under
certain conditions to restrain the primitive passions,
even of the higher races.

Torture in China is legal or illegal. The
bamboo leads the way— the bamboo, universal in

I2I

Law and Order

a land which might be termed The Land of the
Bamboo. Our thumbscrew of old is replaced by
finger-squeezers and ankle -squeezers. The illegal
tortures, some of which, if not all, are winked at
by those high in authority, are numerous, and
show to what refinement of cruelty men’s coarse
nature can descend, when once mercy goes by
the board.

There are indications that even legal torture
will soon be illegal in this land, which is desirous
of really taking her place properly amongst the
foremost nations of the world. Edicts have been
issued against the practice, and doubtless it will
be a thing of the past ere long.

Why is it done in the name of justide?
Because the prisoner must confess his guilt — ^^a
fiction of the law in China ; therefore torture must
be resorted to to extort the confession. The wit-
nesses will not tell the truth ; then physical pain
and mental anguish will force it out of their lips.
So the courts resound with blows and agonised
groans and cries, and thus out of disorder order
of a kind is evolved. Truth is thus supposed to
grow amongst thorns and brambles ; but can
Eschol clusters be thus obtained? The magistrate
or judge has to do the best he can— and what can
he do? The Chinaman’s mouth is full of lies —
the East produces lies in abundance, as well as
some truth.

The Chinese are a law-abiding people. Crime
is not rife amongst them> all things being taken

122

Local Self-Government

into consideration. Indigent circumstance, the
starvation point — these are the chief incentives to
theft. The rapacity of bad officials is a’ very
cogent reason in their eyes for rebellion, and a
resort to its concomitant crimes and evils. Bad
feeling, except in the case of clan fights, gener-
ally finds relief in a storm of words ; angry
passions find vent in noisy talk, and the situation
is relieved. With the Chinaman, expression
apparently relieves passion, arid the storm' of
words calms the overwrought feelings. With the
Englishman the altercation often ends in a fight ;
the outpourings of taunts and reproaches only leads
to assault and battery.

To a considerable extent — though parliamentary
life is but just beginning — and therefore in ri
different way than in the West, the Chinese rule
themselves. The elders in a village, acknowledged
by the powers that be, have a considerable amount
of power in their hands. Petty cases of theft,
even in cities, are dealt with without recourse to
the courts. A not uncommon punishment for this
crime is the whipping through the streets. Here
we have again a counterpart of flogging at a cart’s
tail which some of our parents have seen in our
own land. The stocks, too, of which relics are
still standing in some of our villages, have their
equivalent in the wooden collar, which;, however^
is more like the pillory of our own past times.
Within this square collar of wood the criminal is
unable to feed himself, and lias to endure the dis-

123

Law and Order

comfort and ignominy of it often at the roadside.
This cangue, as it is called, has been found an
excellent deterrent in our own colony of Hong
Kong, as a punishment for theft and other minor
offences. And here let it be remarked that a
Chinese mode of dealing with Chinese is often
more effectual than our present up-to-date Western
methods.

Let us apply ati Eastern aphorism to an Eastern
condition of affairs ; for it was well said that you
could not put new wine into old bottles. After all,
in a land which, from an Eastern standpoint, is
law-abiding and orderly, an immense amount of
disorderliness abounds and rampantly asserts itself,
looked at from a Western point of view.

If one were to take note of the constant reports
of rebellion, the country would seem to be in a
state of chronic rebellion. Little ebullitions are
springing up every now and then here and there all
over the country ; no sooner does one appear to be
quieted in one quarter when another seems to raise
its head in another part of the empire. There have
been some of gigantic proportions, such, for
instance, as the great Tai Ping rebellion, which
shocked the whole world. This, though born in
the southern provinces of China, swept over the
whole of the central portion and located itself in
the ancient capital city of Nanking for seventeen
years (1850-67). The movement began under
the leadership of a visionary, who, assimilating
some of the truths of Christianity, and aided by

124

The Taiping Rebellion

the dreams of a disordered mind, developed a
political religion, which empowered him to rule
over China, and drive the hated Manchu from the
throne of his forefathers.

At one time it really looked as if this would be
accomplished. At first the utmost discipline
appears to have been kept ; but round his standard
and the nucleus of earnest, religious visionaries,
a horde of riff-raff gathered, and the leader soon
failed to show his right to take the crown from
the foreign rulers of his country.

This insurrection changed the fertile garden into
a desert. The people were ground between the
two forces, as between an upper and nether mill-
stone. The city of Hankow was taken six times
by the rebels in the course of thirty months. An
attempt was made to reach Peking, but it failed.
Ruthless conflicts occurred, in which the unoffend-
ing inhabitants of the country suffered the horrors
of civil war without any of the ameliorating con-
comitants of such events in the West. Bloodshed
and massacre ruled supreme throughout five
immense provinces ; seventy thousand inhabitants
perished in the city of Hangchau alone. Shanghai
would have been taken but that the foreign
residents in that city protected it.

The recruits to the ranks of the insurgents, as
time went on, were mainly conquered natives, who
were forced to join them^ and who found them-
selves between the frying-pan and the fire, as under
these circumstances they were considered by the

125

Law and Order

Imperialists to be rebels, and, if taken, were
beheaded offhand. In fact, it seems that some, at
all events, were branded on the cheeks by the
rebels when thus conscripted into their ranks, so
that escape was utterly impossible ; for they dared
not show themselves again in their own homes or
amongst their own people, with their apparent
guilt plainly proclaimed on their faces. Untold
horrors were inflicted on the people by both forces.

The movement rapidly degenerated after the
unsuccessful endeavour to reach Peking. There
were dissensions amongst the leaders, though the
new military commanders seemed to have the spirit
of the first leaders. Eventually this gigantic
revolution was killed by the aid of the foreigners,
of whom, as leader. General Gordon was the most
conspicuous.

Thus ended one of the most disastrous rebellions
that China has ever known, and her history is full
of such events. The population of China was
kept down within its present limits by these awful
massacres of innocent and guilty alike ; for city
after city was made a pile of ruins, and its
inhabitants put to the sword. After the recapture
of Nanking three days and three nights were spent
in the massacre of its inhabitants by the
Imperialists, and fourteen years after this city still
lay in ruins. As another instance the case of
Chang Chow, in Fokien, may be mentioned, where
from' six to seven hundred thousand men were
killed by the rebels or perished by disease.

126

Quelling Rebellions

Of a different class are the Mohammeda n rebel-
lions, of which there have been several serious
ones during the last two or three centuries in
China. The one in the north-west and the one in
the south-west during the last century were most
awful. They were fought with the greatest deter-
mination on the part of the rebels, and in all
these cases extermination seems to have been the
rule on both sides.

With a rebellion in China two methods can be
adopted : the leaders of the outburst may be
bought over and made mandarins, if the promise
made to them to induce them to put down their
arms is kept. If such is the case, they bring over
with them their followers. The other alternative
is extermination of all — man, woman, and child —
and the razing of all the dwelling-houses to the
ground. To understand what war in China is, we
must again go back to the Middle Ages in Europe
to find its counterpart. War at all times is savage,
but in the East it is savage with a vengeance.
Had the Mohammedan rebellion in the north-west
not been put down, its followers in their fanatical
zeal would have exterminated all who were not
of their belief. Success at one time seemed to
be within reach, so very serious was its character,
as also was that in the Yunnan province. It must
be noted that the latter was not due to religion.
In China the sword is not use'd by the Moham-
medan as a medium of converting the heathen to
his faith.

127

Law and Order

In addition to these convulsions, which almost
shook the Empire to its very centre, there are
little rebellions which, owing to the inability or
corruption of the mandarins, are allowed to spread
and increase in power and strength, till what might
by just dealing and a vigorous system of repression
have been avoided or overcome, is allowed to gain
head until matters become serious.

Added to all this there are clan fights in some
parts of the country, where for years a species of
vendetta is carried on between different villages,
which at times almost rises to the magnitude or
dignity of small civil wars, when troops have to
be sent to put an end to the strife.

An outbreak of another nature was known as
the Boxer rising. Its most prominent features
were the massacre of missionaries and native
Christians, and the siege of the Legations in
Peking. The year 1911 saw the outbreak of a
revolutionary movement which, unlike the Boxer
rising, is not directed against foreigners, but is
the endeavour of young China to assert itself. Its
object is the procuring of drastic reforms, with the
remodelling of ancient institutions and customs,
so that, as a rejuvenated people, the country may
take its confident stand with the foremost nations
of the world, as she was able to do in ages past.

128

CHAPTER XI

The Diverse Tongues of John
Chinaman

T hough they are not so diverse in nationality
as some congeries of people that call them-
selves by the name of a nation, yet there has been
a conglomeration of diverse elements amongst the
Chinese. Why is such a fuss made about purity
of blood? Is it because like rainbow gold it is
nowhere to be found? With a nation like the
Chinese it is nearer of attainment than with a
composite people like ourselves — an amalgam of
Briton and Saxon and Dane and Norman, to
reduce it to its very simplest elements.

Nor are the Chinese separated into such a
multiplicity of races and tribes and peoples as
the inhabitants of the Indian Empire, with their
ninety languages and nine hundred dialects, though
in the latter respect they are in the running, but
somewhat behind ; for: they speak with cloven
tongues, which help to render the cleavage more
intense between different sections of the country.

129

Diverse Tongues

The Chinaman has not an easy aptitude foi:
learning to speak in other tongues, with their
variations in * tone as well as their different
cadences of accent. The best school for a
Chinaman to learn Chinese as spoken by his
fellow-countrymen a few hundreds of miles from
where he himself lives is out of China. Let him
be born in Singapore or the Straits Settlements,
or thereabouts, in a world where he may lisp his
baby -talk in as many Chinese languages as he has
fingers on one hand, while he may take into count
the fingers of the other hand with soft Malay
and more robust English, and any other stray
speech that may come across his way. It is
curious to see how awkwardly a Chinaman
splutters, in his attempts to pronounce what to
him is virtually a strange tongue, even if it be one
spoken within the borders of his own land. Again,
if the average Englishman has a difficulty in
learning to speak Chinese properly, the Chinese
have equal difficulty in learning to speak our
language, so bristling is it with difficulties of mood
and tense and number and person and case and
comparison, to say nothing of accent and voca-
bulary and pronunciation.

Now let it be clearly understood that Mandarin
is not the language of China, though some people
who ought to know better think and say so. It
is true that Mandarin is the language spoken in
Peking ; and a kind of Mandarin is the language
of Nanking. A Mandarin of another kind is

130

Mandarin and Pekingese

spoken in the extreme west. Possibly some other
Mandarin of sufficient distinctive importance, and
considerably different from^ those already known to
the sinologue may yet be separated out from the
others, and attain the honour of having dictionaries,
grammars, and word- and phrase-books and
various vade-mecums prepared for it by the in-
dustrious and inquisitive foreign student in this
Land of Many Speeches and Tongues.

Mandarin in some form is spoken in fifteen
provinces out of the eighteen. All officials of any
position are supposed to speak Pekingese, as it
would be impossible for an official to learn a
dozen languages in the course of his career, ill-
equipped as he is for the task by nature, by books,
or by assistance of any kind, to say nothing of
the months or years of inaction, should the new
incumbents of the recently filled posts have to
learn to speak another variety of their own tongue.
Pekingese thus forms the lingua franca of the
higher officials and their entourage. To deal with
the millions of those under their rule interpreters
have to be employed, if any verbal communications
are to pass between those who govern and the
governed : so that in court or elsewhere these
interpreters are the media for the transmission of
the evidence, the statements, the decisions, &c.,
unless the populace be a Mandarin-speaking one.
There may be some fifty millions in China, or
even more, to whom' Pekingese is a strange
language. How many more there may be who are

131

Diverse Tongues

supposed to be Mandarin -speakers, but whose dia-
lect of that tongue is so different from the standard
of the metropolis as to render it difficult for their
rulers to understand what they say, it is impossible
to even form' a guess. It has been said above
that Pekingese is supposed to be spoken by the
higher officials ; but many a one so mixes up
his own particular form of Mandarin with the
outward veneer of a: badly acquired Pekingese
that till one gets acquainted with his peculiar and
atrocious pronunciation or peculiar tones his
language is not easily intelligible.

Most ardent theatre-goers pick up a smattering
of Southern Mandarin or Nankingese. Even in
so-called Mandarin -speaking districts the people
have a lingo of their own, which is not under-
stood by those who have not made a special study
of it.

In South-Eastern China, extending even to the
central coast-wise portion of the land, there are
languages quite different from' Mandarin, millions
upon millions of the speakers of which know no
other language but their own. These languages
are carried abroad by their speakers to our
colonies, so that the complex problem' of Chinese
all speaking languages and dialects differing from
one another confronts our cadets and officials, in
their endeavours to reach the governed in their
own tongues. In the Straits Settlements there are
Chinese from Canton, from Amoy, from Swatow,
from Hainan, and there are Hakkas. It is possible

132

A FEMALE AC'ROliA'r

Diversity and Unity

there may be some from' the cities of Foochow, or
Shanghai, or Ningpo, or even other places. Out
of the eight places named above, five or six are
so distinct in their speech from each other that
those who come from' one of them cannot under-
stand those from' the others. Of the remaining
places, though the speech is dissimilar, yet the
dwellers in one might understand one from' one
or two of the other places, but not from the
other spots. This method of stating the case m!ay
serve to show that these languages are as distinct
as European tongues, though at the same time
there is a bond of union running through all, in
a similarity of structure and a resemblance of form'.
If one may use the simile, they are all built up on
the same order of architecture, but though the
main features are, on a cursory glance, the sam'e,
yet such a variety of individual differences and
outside influences have been brought to bear in
some cases as to alter largely the apparent
similitude.

Most, if not all of these, are of more ancient
origin than the Mandarin, and, as proof of this,
traces of older times of one kind and another are
found in them'. While a change more or less
pronounced has taken place in all of them' from
their remote antiquity, as compiared with the
Mandarin, they are more conservative in their
forms than the Northern Mandarin (of Peking)
has proved itself to be in its proximity to the
Tartar speeches of the north.

133

K

Diverse Tongues

The importance of the languages has been lost
sight of by the name “ dialect ” being wrongly
applied to them. This misuse of the term leaves
no word to describe the dialects, which are so
numerous as to have been said to equal in number
the days in the year. In some parts of the country
these are so many in number as to allow at least
many a district (county) to have one of its own.
These dialects are again subdivided into sub-
dialects, and the subdivison goes on till at last
even a city will have two or three local pecu-
liarities in speech between its suburbs, and
between them and the area within the walls
itself.

In the city of Canton, for instance, the language
spoken in the west end differs in some slight
respects from that spoken in the southern suburbs,
and again, inside a part of the Old City (as
the most ancient part of the city is called)
the language is, on account of the banner -men
and some Mandarin -speakers, corrupted . with an
infusion of Mandarin ; while again that of the
Ho Nam suburb differs in some respects from
that of some other portions of the city. That of
the western suburbs is the standard of correct
pronunciation for the greater part of the province
— in fact, the Cantonese which is respected by
some 20,000,000 or more of people. The
language used by some of the country districts
not a hundred miles from Canton, is the pative
tongue of hundreds of thousands of dwellers in

134

Linguistic Barriers

city, town, and village, and is unintelligible without
study to the cultured Canton city resident.

As an instance of how it is impossible for the
native of one part of China to understand one
from another district, I may call attention to the
curious sight, often seen in Hong Kong, of an amah
(nurse in a foreign family) brought from, say,
the north of China, conversing with another servant
belonging to the Colony, not in their own native
tongue, but in Pidgin-English, as otherwise they
could not understand each other. Still more
common is it in the courts of justice in that
Colony to see an Englishman interpreting what
one Chinaman says to another Chinaman, both
living in the Colony, for the simple reason that the
foreigner in this case has learned two or more of
the Chinese languages, while the Chinese in ques-
tion only know one each — that into which they
were born, if one may so put it — and have never
learned that of the other Chinaman, and so each
is indebted to a foreigner to learn what their
own countryman is saying.

Conditioned by his surroundings and his loca-
tion, and the different influences which have come
into play upon him and his language, the divers
tongues of the Chinaman differ in their charac-
teristics. The Mandarin abounds in “ r’s,” and,
though they are not rolled round the tongue as a
Scotchman likes to enunciate them', yet they are
not entirely lost sight of. The r is not found in
the speech of the South of China. The Cantonese

135

Diverse Tongues

is a soft and pleasant speech, while the Mandarin
is more like the German with its force of utter-
ance, as compared to the Italian sounds of the
Cantonese. The Hakka is a half-way house
between the Mandarin and the Cantonese. In the
Swatow, nasal sounds are largely employed ; and
in the singing of hymns this has an extraordinary
effect, as the voices hush into a mere nose or lip
production of sound. In Amoy these nasal sounds
also prevail extensively, and in these two languages
the b is known, though unknown in the greater
part of the southern districts ; while in Shanghai,
Ningpo, and slightly in the Hakka, v is used, iv
taking its place elsewhere. The tendency of the
Mandarin has been to drop the letters p, and
A, when at the end of words, with the result of
a more slurring effect in speaking, compared with
the more distinct utterance of the southerners.

The tones give a musical cadence to the
language, and this is more pronounced in the
south, where there are twice, if not thrice, the
number of these, tones in use, as compared with
the north. Each word is relegated to that tone
in the scheme of tones to which it belongs, and
in which it must be spoken. The meaning of
a word may vary with the tone in which it is
uttered. A musical note will generally explain
much of what tones are, though there are other
factors in their production. There are level-
sustained tones, dying-away tones, rising tones,
falling tones, abrupt tones, long tones, and short

136

Tones and Accents

tones ; in addition there are also cresfenda and
diminuendo effects .

It would be very interesting to know why there
are all these different sets of tones, perhaps some
hundreds of them, differing more or less, used over
China, and why more tones are used in some parts
than in others. One language in China will be
content with five or six tones while another will
not stop short of fifteen or sixteen. It may be
possible that all languages were tonic originally :
some are inclined to think that this was the case.
The language of all babies the world over is tonic ;
for an infant when learning to speak always says
the words he learns in the same tone he has learned
them in, till he finds that grown-up people, except
in the Far East, have discarded tones. Accent
in English is not tone, though accent in English
can often be used to represent Chinese tones. The
Chinese employ accent as well.

One tonic system, it will be gathered from the
above, does not suffice for the whole of China,
with its numerous different languages and speeches.
So after one has learned the words in one language
of Chinese, and how to pronounce them' aright,
and the correct tone, the foreigner or native, if
he takes up the study of another Chinese language,
has to learn different tones for his new language,
as well as learn new words, new idioms, and new
accents. Again, a word may have besides ks
primary tone a secondary or variant tone, only
to be used in certain combinations, or to express

137

Diverse Tongues

different meanings from what the word in its
primary tone stands for. This, to the foreign
student of the language, seems confusion worse
confounded.

These variant tones differ again in their use
and application in the different languages, and
also in the different dialects to some extent. In
the Swatow, every word in each sentence or
clause, except the last one or two, must change
into its other, or variant tone. In Cantonese the
definition of them given earlier applies . In
Hankow and Mandarin there are said to be none,
though in the latter the author has reason to believe
that if special study were given, a discovery of
them might be made, as well as their method of
use.

The Middle dialects, as they are called—those
of Shanghai and Ningpo — have the medial vowels
in words developed into diphthongs to a larger
extent than elsewhere.

All the languages in China agree in the
elimination of superfluous words in a sentence, as
regarded from the Chinese standpoint, to the utter
confusion of the European learner or speaker. In
a few instances in English we do condescend to
a very simple style of speaking~a style which the
Chinese use to a very large extent. For instance,
we say simply, “ Come,” when we mean Come
here,” or ‘‘ Come to me.” The Chinese says in
this same way, to cite one example, keeooy or
keeoo loh, when the loh means nothing translat-

138

Calculated Brevity

able into English, but shows that a precis^ state-
ment is being made. The keeoo is the important
word, and that means simply “ called,” but the
Chinaman to whom it is addressed understands
what the speaker means, which is, '‘You are
called,” or “ Some one is calling you.” The object
is left out in a sentence when it is perfectly well
understood what is referred to. For example, a
father with us, seeing his child not eating his
porridge at breakfast, might say to him', “ Are
you not eating it? ” but a Chinese father in a
similar case would only say, “You not eating?”
The “it” is understood, and is not used, unless
there is a particular necessity to call attention
to this one thing in contradistinction to other
things .

This principle runs through *the whole language.
The Chinese prefers to save his breath and words.
In Chinese, again, there are practically no moods,
tenses, numbers, or persons, if looked at from
the standpoint of a European language. Of course
there are means of showing these, when it is
necessary — ^necessary, that is to say, from the
Chinese point of view, which is very different from
our conception of what is necessary in language.
There is thus a terseness and a simplicity in the
language, which tend to its beauty, and, when
attention is paid to the context, the confusion which
might otherwise arise is avoided. A logical
sequence is often apparent in the dependence of
the sentences, which is lost sight of in the com-

139

Diverse Tongues

plexity of our Western sentences^ burdened as they
are also with all the intricacies of moods, and the
incidental prepositions and conjunctions, omitted
in Chinese to a large extent.

John Chinaman is again a survival of the
Middle Ages in the manner of using his tongue.
He clings to the past, and this style, as far as the
language is concerned, is based on, nay is identical
with, that of hundreds or even thousands of years
ago. If it can be supposed that every book written
in England were written in the language of
Chaucer or Piers Plowman, some idea might
be got of how the book-language differs from
the common speech. If we remember the feeling
of our forefathers, when it was proposed to put
the Bible into English which would be under-
stood by every one, and recall how at that time
our own language was considered to be too low
and vulgar to be used for books — ^then some
idea of the attitude of Chinese scholars towards
their own beautiful spoken language may be
understood.

So accustomed have they become to the well-
balanced periods of the written language, so
entranced are they with its beauties, so immersed
have they become in the overflowing floods of their
literature, that what is difficult for the men or
women who are not the bookworms they are is
simplicity to them. Moreover, they imbue those
they instruct with their own views, so that not
only do their own people follow in their steps,

140

Letters and Learners

but the foreigner, shut up in his study with them
to learn their language, affects their ways and
imbibes their opinions, to the detriment of his
spoken speech. For it rarely happens that a
foreigner in China who goes in largely for this
comparatively dead language — the book -language
— becomes proficient in the spoken language of
the people. The one stultifies the other, in the
case of the foreigner, so that to master either
requires almost a life-study.

This accounts for much of the illiteracy in
China ; for to master the dead language of the
books is a task often beyond the power or time
allowed the poor boy. Most of the books are
locked up in this dead speech, and beyond the
reach of the full comprehension of those who have
not received a thoroughly good education— and
such an education is not within the reach of an
immense number of the people. It is impossible to
say how m'any.

The number of the educated and of the illiterate,
or of the partly educated, differs widely in different
parts of the land and in town and country. With
the labouring classes, who may be earning only
a bare subsistence, the boys either go without
learning to read, or, if it be possible to send them
to school, their schooling ends when they have
received but a smattering. If a year or two at
school does little for au English boy whose books
are written in almost a colloquial style, it may
be estimated how very much less they do for a

141

Diverse Tongues

Chinese youth, whose books are to him' sO’ difficult.
It is as if an English infant class were taught to
read English' from the first four Books of Euclid.

F ortunately there are indications of a widespread
change taking place. The new school books are
now modelled on the plan of the Western school
books, and in time the language employed will
doubtless be still more simplified. Further, the
new movements in China are awakening the people
to the use of the living tongue, and as a result
one or two of the newspapers are employing it to
a slight extent.

The foreign element does not appear so largely
in Chinese as in our own language. Buddhism!
with its idolatry is perhaps responsible for the
largest imported portion. The genius of the
Chinese language, a little like the German in this
respect, is to assimilate the new idea, and clothe
it in some expressive term in their own language.
Thus a steamer is a “ fire-ship.”

Notwithstanding this, those who have delved
amongst its different languages or dialects with
this object in view, have discovered after all not
a few foreign imported words . One language or
another has contributed a word or two or more, as
the case may be. As an illustration we may
instance the word toto, in use in the Macao dialect,
and derived from' the Portuguese, who have been
domiciled in Macao for more than three centuries.
Other words are more difficult to trace, and require
some ingenuity at times to fix on their origin and

142

Borrowed Words

source. The Arabic original is seen in apeen,
for opium. In Amoy sat pan is used for soap, an
imported article in China originally, though they
are now beginning to manufacture it for them-
selves. This last word is derived from the Spanish.

143

CHAPTER XII

The Drug : Foreign Dirt

M uch strong language has been used on both
sides in regard to the opium question;
but the Chinese themselves have but one opinion
on it.

As for the foreigner in China, many have ex-
pressed the strongest opinions, when their ignor-
ance on the subject was only commensurate with
the strength of their statements. Some of these
who are not qualified to form a judgment at all
on the subject not only give voice to their views
ex catkMrd, but stigmatise as fanatics all who
hold an opposite view to their own. But the
matter is now passing out of range of discussion
by the non-Chinese ; for the whole nation is
expressing in no measured terms its decision on
the question. This attitude of the Chinese — not
taken up by the Government alone, but by the
people as well as by the ruling powers— is one of
the most hopeful signs in the advance of China.

The opium habit is of but recent origin. There
is nothing to show that the juice of the poppy

144

A Modem Vice

was valued in China for anything but its medicinal
properties a couple of hundred years ago. In fact,
the proof is all the other way. It cannot be
supposed for a moment that, had the vice been
one known in this land before its introduction from
abroad, it would not have been mentioned by
Chinese writers. There is besides a perfect silence
on the matter by mediaeval travellers who visited
the Far Orient, for the simple reason that there
was a complete absence of material in that con-
nection to write on. Had it been largely in use,
doubtless the Roman Catholic missionaries would
have had something to say about it.

The reference to opium by the writer of the
Chinese Herbal two centuries ago, says it was
“ formerly but little known,” and his description of
it “ leads to the inference that it was then used
in medicine.”

It was the Portuguese who mostly engaged in the
trade at first, and its importation only reached a
thousand chests in 1767. Six years later the East
India Company “ made a small adventure ” in it,
and seven years later “ a depot of two small vessels
was established by the English.” A cargo of 1,600
chests sold to one of the old Hong merchants
eventually found its way to the Eastern Archi-
pelago, as the traders could not command a
sufficient price in China. In 1791 opium was
imported “ under the head of medicine.” The
Chinese authorities began to complain in 1793 ;
and then started the long opposition against its

145

The Drugs Foreign Dirt

introduction, stultified to a large extent by the
readiness of those in authority to accept bribes
and close their eyes to its smuggling, while our
own countrymen, overpowered by the desire to
make fortunes and retire to a life of ease in
England or America, connived at it, and fostered
the trade carried on by smuggling.

It seems strange that greed should so close the
eyes of respected and otherwise honourable men to
the nefariousness of engaging in such an underhand
trade. Unfortunately, the Chinese Government
officials objected to all trade with the hated
foreigner, and this may have helped to gloss over
the iniquity of the particular trade. It is a sad
spectacle “ of power, habit, skill, and money all
combining to weaken and overpower the feeble,
desultory resistance of a pagan and ignorant
people against the progress of what they knew was
destroying them. The finality of such a struggle
could hardly be doubted, and when the tariff of
1S58 allowed opium to enter by the payment of
a duty, the already enfeebled moral resistance
seemed to die out with the extinction of the
smuggling trade in opium.” ^

With the ennobling power of a Christian civilisa-
tion infused into her veins, it is to be hoped that
China, now that she has roused herself, will not
rest content till the good work she has commenced
be carried to a glorious issue, and the youth of
that Country be saved from the debilitating effects
* ' Williams, ii. p. 380,

146

The Smoker’s Struggle

of the destructive body-ruining, mind -enfeebling,
and soul-blasting drug. Those who argue that
such are not its effects are woefully ignorant of
the inner life of the Chinese.

They look at the surface of Chinese life only,
and when they see a brisk and active compradore,
who acknowledges that he is a smoker, and has
smoked for years, they seem incapable of taking
ail the influences and facts into their minds. They
do not see him' when he craves for the drug that
is life and death to him', and are unaware how
entirely he is dependent on it; nor do they know
that he has probably just primed himself up with
the stimulant upon which he depends for his
apparent vigour. His accounts are kept by his
underlings, of whom, in all probability, he has
a large staff, bound to him' by the ties of clan-
ship, whom he can trust, and over whom, more
Sinico, he has an iron grip: his work accordingly
can run on, whilst he lies for hours at his smoking.

The European employer does not see his
servant in his hours of depression, nor does he
know tllat he is trying with all the power left in
him not to exceed the daily allowance he has fixed
upon as the utmost limit he dare venture on. He
does not realise what a struggle is going on in
the fight not to be overcome in the losing game,
and that his employee is stubbornly trying his best
to hold his own with the overwhelming force
against him. The victim tries to fortify himself
against the inroads of the unsatisfied and un-

147

The Drug : Foreign Dirt

satisfying drug, attempting to hold the craving
in check, and trying to build up his frame by tonic
and strengthening foods. Even if he be a man
of iron will, the combat is slowly telling against
him, and any traces of its effects observed on his
face are put down to ill-health.

The opium-sot (save when his wealth has been
sufficiently large to enable him' to maintain the
drain on his resources) gradually sinks in the social
scale, unless friends or relatives support him. His
vice has unfitted him for toil, as half, or more, of
the night spent in smoking does not prepare for
a day of work. He rises at noon, enfeebled and
tmfit for any exertion till “ a hair of the dog that
bit him ” causes his exhausted energies to flicker
up for a brief period. Often without the means
to procure sufficient food and clothing; he is a
pitiable object to all, and is called an opium-
devil by his own countrymen. Such a man is
not likely to remain in the busy centres of com-
merce, such as Hong Kong or Shanghai. He
naturally gravitates to his hom'e in the Country,
where he may obtain some assistance from
friends. He slinks away from' observation, and at
last sinks into a dishonoured grave.

The so-called opium wars, it must in justice
be said, would, with the arrogance of the man-
darins and the determination of the English to
trade, have taken place— opium or no opium —
sooner or later. Opium was not the sole, though
it was a great contributory, reason for them.

148

A Mistaken Policy

The Chinatnan, while taking the drug, hated
the Englishman for bringing it to his shores,
and much of the ill-feeling against the foreigner
was due to the trade. For the Chinaman reasoned
no one could be good who sold such a poison,
to the ruin of his countrymen.

The trade drifted years ago into the hands of
Parsees and Indians, and Englishmen in the Far
East became the mere carriers to China and up
and down the coast, though in India the Govern-
ment fostered its growth, and derived a large
share of the revenue by its cultivation. The
financial difficulty has been the stumbling-block
to its abolition; and it is this consideration which
prevents the foreign resident in China from seeing
the patent evils of the trade and consumption of
opium. But when the Chinese themselves are
willing to lose money by its cessation, and to
subscribe to further its extinction, this single
fact is a guarantee of their good faith in the
matter.

The average foreign resident in China has
grown suspicious of the Chinese attitude on the
question, owing to the Chinese line of action in
the past. He doubted the Chinaman’s intention,
when the Chinese Government fostered the ex-
tended growth of native opium in the Empire itself
(till nearly every province grew it), with the
ostensible (as he considered it merely to be) object
of killing the foreign consumption. This accom-
plished, the Chinese Government said they could

149 L

The Drug : Foreign Dirt

easily prohibit the native growth, and thus
extinguish the whole trade and evil.

There is now, however, no reason to doubt the
Chinese bona fides. The whole nation is roused,
or rousing itself against it; it is not official action
only that is being taken. Though smoking officials
may be here and there lax— and it is well-nigh
impossible to have laws obeyed at once through-
out the length and breadth of such an immense
Oriental empire — yet degradation and even death
have resulted to some of the smoking mandarins.
Given time, there is little doubt that the whole
Empire will respond to the lead of the better-
minded of its people and the mandates of those
in authority. China is being stirred to her depths
in this crusade against this potent evil: she feels
she must do, or die. Her position was in the
van of the Eastern world (the whole world, as
far as the East was concerned) for many centuries.
She was the leader of the world’s progress :
civilisation, letters, light, and knowledge, all these
emanated from her.

But as the West came into her purview of late
years, she has found that she was deposed from
her exalted position. Though blindly, arrogantly,
stubbornly trying to hold to the past, she found
herself unable to cope with the despised Western
barbarian. Bits of her territory were stripped from'
her by different foreign nations all down her coast-
line, while an immense territory was taken in the
north. This she resolved should not go on.

ISO

Repentance

In her time of abasement, an insignificant island
kingdom, whose inhabitants she looked down
upon as little monkeys — a people who had learned
much in the past from her, but after being her
pupils had eagerly imbibed knowledge from the
West— this people^ strengthened by the Christian
civilisation of the West grafted on to the valour
of a sea-bound nation, had blocked the waves of
aggression from the West, and withstood boldly
the advance of an absorbing power, beating a
Western foe back. This little insignificant race
set its face against opium, and forbade its use,
determined to exterminate it, even in Formosa, by
repressive measures. All this was an object-lesson
to the Chinese. They had at the same time been
prepared by a century of missionary labour
amongst them, which, while it instructed them in
the tenets of Christianity, spread broadcast over
the land modern knowledge and science in
the thousands of books issued by the various
Religious Tract Societies together with the mission
presses.

It is a grand and noble spectacle to see a once
effete Eastern nation shaking the dust of abasement
from her feet and rising with new vigour, born
of the day of enlightenment, to again take her
place amongst the comity of nations of God’s
glorious world.

A Nemesis threatens the foreigner who has
introduced the baleful drug in such large qium-
titles into China, 'for it appears that not a few

iSi

The Drug : Foreign Dirt

Americans have learned to take it from the Chinese
smokers resident amongst them. A fear of its
effects on their own people both at home and
abroad in the Philippines resulted in the initiation
of the international opium convention in Shanghai.
Its actions and resolutions will no doubt strengthen
the crusade against opium-smoking and its sister
vice, the hypodermic injection of morphia.

It would seem to the ordinary individual that the
past attempts to discount by elaborate treatises on
the chemical constituents of the smoke, &c., the
evil effects of the smoking of opium, are of little
practical value to those who try to argue that
opium-smoking is harmless. For one sees that
the opium-smoker can have his cravings satisfied
with morphia injected into his system or taken
in pills, by the dross of smoked opium, and even
the ashes of the drug taken in water.

“ Opium imparts no benefit to the smoker,
impairs his bodily vigour, beclouds his mind, and
unfits him for his station in society ; he is miserable
without it, and at last dies by what he lives upon.’^
It is like “ raising the wick of a lamp, which, while
it increases the blaze, hastens the exhaustion of
the oil and the extinction of the light.” “ When
the ’sfnoking commences, the naan becomes
loquacious, and breaks out into boisterous, silly
merriment, which gradually changes to a vacant
paleness and shrinking of the features, as the
quantity” smoked “increases and the narcotic acts.
A deep sleep supervenes, from' half an hour to

152

The Smoker’s Limit

three or four hours’ duration, during which the
pulse becomes slower, softer, and smaller than
before the debauch. No refreshment is felt from
this sleep, when the person has become a victim
to the habit, but a universal sinking of the powers
of the body and mind is experienced, and com-
plete recklessness of all consequences, if only the
craving for more can be appeased.

“ A novice is content with one or two whiffs,
which produce vertigo, nausea, and headache,
though practice enables him to gradually increase
the quantity.” So-called “ ‘ temperate smokers,’
warned by the sad example of numerous victims
around them, endeavour to keep within bounds,
and walk as near the precipice as they can, without
falling over into hopeless ruin. In order to do
this, they limit themselves to a certain quantity
daily, and take it at or soon after meals, so that
the stomach may not be so much weakened.” Such
an one “ can seldom exceed a mace weight, or
about as much of prepared opium as will balance
a franc piece ; this quantity will fill twelve pipes.
Two mace weight taken daily is considered an
immoderate dose, which few can bear for any
length of time; and those who are afraid of the
effects of the drug upon themselves endeavour not
to exceed a mace. Some persons who have strong
constitutions and stronger resolution, continue the
use of the drug within these limits for many years,
without disastrous effects upon their health and
spirits, though most of even these moderate smokers

153

The Drug : Foreign Dirt

are so much the slaves of the habit that they feel
too wretched, nerveless, and imbecile to go on
with their business without the stimulus.” ^

“ An insupportable languor throughout the
whole frame ” is the continual legacy of the opium-
smoker, and he is in utter misery when the usual
times for taking the drug arrive if he cannot obtain
it on the instant. He is restless, wretched, and the
craving completely unnerves and overpowers him.
The author’s experience, with witnesses in the
witness-box, for more than a score of years, led
him to detest the sight of a heavy opium-smoker,
prepared, or rather unprepared, to give evidence
in English courts of justice. Under such circum-
stances, the greatest difificulty was experienced in
the attempt to obtain statements that were clear,
lucid, and truthful. The guile of the devil mixed
with the slyness of an impaired mind, which, in
abject fear of giving away his case, caused the
drug-taker to prevaricate and contradict himself,
thus rendering it difficult to obtain a succinct and
clear account of any intricate and involved action.
An opium-smoker is not a rampant ruffian, as the
drunkard is when under the effects of his potations.
He does not murder his wife; but he kills her by
slow degrees, or pawns or sells her. He does not
go reeling through the streets, a danger to himself
and others ; but the effects of his vice are as bad,
if not worse, in the long run.

Statistics which try to prove that the number
* Williams, ii. pp. 382, 383.

154

Statistics Unreliable

of confirmed smokers is less than what is generally
well known to be the case, based on a certain
consumption by the individual smoker, are founded
on assumptions, and ignore a number of factors.
It is not a certain fixed quantity of the drug taken
by an individual which should form the basis of
calculation; for it is a well-known fact to any
one acquainted with medicines that different con-
stitutions are differently affected by drugs; some
persons are easily influenced by doses that would
have little effect on others. Let us take what is
more patent to most persons. How ridiculous
it would seem to fix on a certain amount of beer,
and then divide the consumption of beer in the
country by this quantity, and say that such a per-
centage of English were habitual drunkards 1 One
man is drunk with an amount that would not affect
another man’s brains ; one man can habitually take
a number of glasses a day which would com-
pletely upset another.

To be reckoned in the question as factors are
the physique of the smokers, and the financial
position of those who indulge this expensive vice.
Another element that must be taken into considera-
tion is that the drug has less power on one who
is well nourished and who has ample means to
buy food to sustain his body against the inroads
of the drug.

To be perfectly sure of the percentage in a
given population, a census would be required, and
as that at present is well-nigh impossible, estimates

155

The Drug : Foreign Dirt

made by those who are well qualified to judge
are the most reliable means of ascertaining the
number, instead of procuring statistics to bolster
up preconceived notions on the subject. No
Chinaman, unless he is directly interested in mini-
mising the results of opium-smoking, will give such
a low estimate as has been furnished from foreign
sources, to attempt to show that the drug is not so
bad in its effects as the people themselves and
those who have lived amongst them know to bs
the case.

But, after all, suppose that statistic's—which can
prove anything required — are reliable, even when
the advocates of the non-abolition of opium have
reduced them to such low figures as they delight
to do — even i per cent., to which scarce one has
yet had the temerity to bring them down— even
I per cent, of confirmed opium -smokers in China
would make a total of 4,260,000, the population
of a small state in Europe (nearly the population
of Norway and Sweden), and roughly a' tenth of
the population of Great Britain and Ireland. Is
such a number not appalling enough to all who
really know what a confirmed opium-smoker is ?

But some statistics are so manipulated as to give
us double this number, viz., 8,520,000. Even
then this is not the very darkest shade of a picture
so dark that no ray of hope illumines it. For this
state of confirmed opium-smoking, to which the
majority of those who indulge in opium in China
are surely tending, represents but a small propor-

156

A Nucleus of Sots

tion of the evil inherent in and surrounding this
fascinating indulgence. Around this nucleus of
opium sots are the beginners who are, as a rule,
starting on a downward course from which to the
majority there is no retreat. And still more
direful, if possible, is the vast fringe of those who
are dragged down into misery and ruin by the
indulgence of father, or son, or husband, or rela-
tive— the poor wives, the suffering children, the
broken-hearted fathers and mothers, and all the
rest who are affected in a greater or lesser
degree.

The Chinese themselves — and who are better
able to judge than the people themselves as to
the cancer in their body social and politic ?— would
scarcely determine to overthrow the fell and deadly
habit, were it of such insignificance as apologists
attempt to make out.

157

CHAPTER XIII

What John Chinaman Eats and

Drinks

T o begin with, John Chinaman’s diet is not
rats and cats and mice and puppy -dog
bones, though more of these may be consumed
within the confines of the vast Empire than in
other parts of the earth’s dominions. He might
retort that the exclusive diet of the Englishman
was jugged hare and blood. He does not live,
like the Englishman, on bacon and eggs, or like
the American, on pork and beans, or like the
Frenchman, on pot aa feti or bouillon, or like the
German, on raw beefsteak and sauerkaut, or like
the Italian, 'on macaroni. Pork and salt fish and
rice and vegetables— at all events in the south —
are his chief dishes ; whilst sharks’ fins and the
gelatinous birds’ nests are the turtle-soup and
venison of the gourmand.

Each nation has its own conception of what
constitutes a meal. John Bull likes solid sub-
stances, rashers of bacon with eggs, or big joints
that he can see, and off which he can cut juicy

158

The Staple Food

slices, and come again to, and yet again, to stay
his hearty appetite. Jacques Bonhomtne likes
dainty little morsels dished up in a tasty manner,,
or the family pot au feu. Guiseppe Mencarini
enjoys his long strings of macaroni, which he cuts
off at his mouth as he gobbles them down., Hans
Breitmann loads his tables with substantial dishes,
and has some fruit with almost every joint of
meat.

John Chinaman, for his part, thinks it barbarous
to bring big joints to the table and cut them up
like a butcher — knives are for the kitchen, not
the dining-room ; they are kitchen furniture, not
table decorations— nor does he believe in slices of
roast and boiled, even when served d la Russe.

The substantial portion of the ordinary meal
consists, in the south, of bowls of rice, usually
steamed well, so that each grain is thoroughly
cooked, and does not stick to the next grain. It
is, when prepared in this method, placed in an
earthenware shallow vessel standing in a pan of
water, and a lid covers it while cooking. The
rule is to put sufficient water into the vessel con-
taining the rice barely to cover the open hand
when laid on the rice. Rice is also often cooked
in a shallow earthen pan, in like manner. With
the poor man, a mere taste of fish, fresh or salt^
and a little fresh or salt vegetable, is all that
appears on his humble board. There is soy,
perhaps, and it may be bean-curd in some form
or other, possibly some salted olives occasionally.

IS9

What John Chinaman Eats

The vegetables and fish are fried in peanut oil,
the taste of which the foreigner cannot, as a rule,
stomach. No salt, or pepper, or mustard, or
vinegar appears on the table. No water is drunk,
but some tea is often poured into the bowl from
which the rice has been eaten, to finish up with.
There is but the one course amongst the lower
classes of society. The wife is not supposed, by
the strict rules of propriety, to eat with her
husband ; but a family party surrounds the board
amongst the lower classes, and the boat people
squat down on their deck round the food.

Amongst shopkeepers the whole of the employees
sit down at the same table and eat together —
master, accountant, shopman, apprentice, and cook,
the last two often being combined in one person.
The rice-bowls having been filled with a copper
ladle from the basket or bucket holding the rice
just brought in from the kitchen, the bowls
are raised to the mouth in the left hand and rested
on or near the under -lip, while with the right
hand the rice is shovelled into the mouth with
the two chopsticks held parallel to each other.
These are two pieces of ivory, bone, wood, or
bamboo, rather longer than a lead-pencil, and not
quite so large in body. They are held between the
thumb and two or three fingers of the right hand,
with the second finger slightly protruding between
them.

This mode of grasping them allows free play ;
for besides using them to push quantities of rice

Use of the Chopsticks

from the bowl into the mouth, they can be em-
ployed as a pair of tongs to lift up, from the
centre of the table, the meat and vegetables which
are already cut into pieces and quantities suitable
to be thus picked up. Each one at his will does
this, either transferring the modicum selected at
once to the mouth, or laying it on the rice in
the bowl, to be more leisurely taken, or shovelled
in with the rice. The chopsticks are most
dexterously used, and, if the piece of meat is
rather large, can hold it while a portion is bitten
off it ; the remainder is then laid on the top of
the rice for future use. It is wonderful how
their owners can do just what they choose with
these seemingly rude and ill-adapted implements-
now breaking off a bit of fish from the common dish
on the table, now dipping some morsel in the small
dish of soy, and then making a predatory expedi-
tion to the dish of vegetables, from which a suffi-
cient quantity is transferred to the bowl to serve
for several mouthfuls of rice. Spice and variety
are lent to the meal by these constant raids. The
utmost good-humour prevails as the results are
appropriated, and quarrels do not result. This
process is continued all through the meal by each
me round the table. It is considered polite to
keep more or less to your side of the dish in taking
these continual helpings.

It is hoped that these explicit explanations will
clear away the misapprehension on this subject
with many ; for the ordinary Englishman believes

i6i

What John Chinaman Eats

that in some mysterious manner, inexplicable to
ordinary mortals, the Chinaman uses his chop-
sticks apparently somewhat in the manner of the
ghoul in the Arabian Nights, who ate her meal,
consisting of “a few grains of rice, with a
toothpick.”

In the south, pork is the meat, and so universal
and constant is its use that the word for meat
in the Amoy language, bach (pronounced like the
name of the musician), means pork.

It may be gathered from what has been said
that made-up dishes are the rule. The Chinese
are very fond of soups and slops. When wanting
a snack of something, a very common thing to
take is a dish of congee (rice gruel). At a formal
dinner party, which is generally at a restaurant,
the food, to our foreign tastes, seems all sloppy.
Course after course of howls of birds’-nest soup,
sharks’ fins, quails cut up in portions, crabs, and
numerous other dishes, is brought in singly or
in sets of four or eight. Rice in such a idase
does not appear till the end of the feast. Porce-
lain spoons, of most primitive shape, are supplied
for the more liquid dishes, and wire toy forkfe to
lift the candied fruits, &c.

One feels, after these grand Chinese dinners,
as if one had eaten to repletion, even if only
a tasting is taken of each dish. Long before the
dinner is through even this has to he given up ;
but with it all there is yet an unsatisfied feeling
of wanting what the Americans would call “ a

162

Table Courtesies

good square meal/’ so unused are we to this style
of feeding.

While the guests are gathering together in the
restaurant where such repasts are held, the
attendants bring in cups of tea about the size of
large coffee-cups with covers on, a sufficiency of
tea-leaves being put into every cup to make a
brew for each. Each person has thus a cup of
tea infused specially for himself. The waiter
writes each person’s name on the cover of the
cup intended for him, and as each circulates about
the room, chatting to host or other guest, the
cup is brought round after each and placed at the
side of or near to the individual to whom it belongs
and replenished whenever necessary.

The Chinese are very fond of splitting melon-
seeds between the teeth (this is rather difficult
of achievement to those unaccustomed to it), eject-
ing the shells and eating the kernels, which are
rather pleasant to the taste ; but the ordinary
European does not find the toil worth the result,
though the Russian, who has the same custom,
is an adept at it.

The author finds a formal Chinese dinner once
in twenty years is sufficient. As a; reason for this,
some of the customs which prevail at the table may
be stated. It is considered politeness to offer
another at the table a titbit with one’s own chop-
sticks, picking it out from one of the dishes on
the table. It will be understood that in the act
of eating, the chopsticks, like our forks, touch

163

What John Chinaman Eats

the lips, or enter the mouths ; so, even without
this display of friendship, each one of the four or
eight persons at a table has dipped his chopsticks
into the plates of many of the comestibles laid
before him.

At one of the few formal Chinese dinners the
author had the pleasure to attend, the host, a most
estimable and distinguished old gentleman, asked
him to take a second helping of soup. A large
bowl containing it stood before the host. There
was no soup -ladle provided, and the old gentle-
man, to ensure that we should get the full benefit
of all the contents of the soup, stirred it with his
own spoon, which he had been using already.
Though others accepted, the author declined any
more. Eructations after the full meal are not
restrained, and in hot weather, coats, waistcoats,
and undergarments are discarded, till the diners
have sometimes nothing left on them but a pair
of trousers.

After the dinner a row of basin-stands,
basins, and towels may stand ready with hot water
for each to wash in, no finger-bowls being used.
In place of serviettes, a waiter will every now
and then bring a wet wash -rag wrung out of hot
water to wipe over the face and hands, which is
very refreshing on a hot day.

Some of the Chinese articles of diet are dainty
and nice ; but an indiscriminate eating of Chinese
food is upsetting to an English stomach, ill -pre-
pared for this kind of fare and its manner of

164

Articles of Food

cooking. The Chinese are not so particular about
everything being perfectly fresh as we are, nor
is needful care exercised to ensure purity of food-
stuffs, as sanitary science is unknown. At the same
time, John Chinaman is a born cook, and can easily
prepare his meals to his own taste and those of
his comrades. The youngest lad in a shop is
appointed cook. The oookshops have a tasty array
of tempting viands spread out on the street front,
and the peripatetic vendors of dumplings and other
toothsome delights present a pleasing choice to
the hungry boy or man.

No mutton is eaten in the south, as sheep do
not thrive in that part of China. A little goat-
flesh is consumed, and some beef ; venison is
exposed for sale in a fewi shops ; but pork and
fish are the staple articles of diet. Of the latter
there is an almost endless variety.

Vegetarians abound in China, from religious and
humanitarian motives. The supply of vegetables
is large, and melons, pumpkins, sweet potatoes,
yams, and taro are much used, while fruit
abounds.

Rats are eaten, and so are cats and dogs, and
even snakes ; but many a Chinese would not touch
some or all of them. Some of the poverty-stricken
country-folk scarcely know the taste of meat, and
are forced to live mostly on a poor quality of
rice and miserable red sweet potatoes.

What is one man’s meat is another man’s poison,
and the EnglishmJan’s stomach turns at the crawl-

X65 M

What John Chinaman Eats

ing mass of rice-field worms that are hawked about
th6 streets for sale. On the other hand, the author
has seen a polite Chinese, when tasting cheese
for the first time in his house, evidently suffer,
much till an opportunity gave him the chance of
leaving the room and spitting out the, to him,
disgusting substance.

Milk is not drunk uncooked, and only a small
quantity is consumed ; this is made into a curded
mass like junket, and hawked warm about the
streets at night.

The Chinaman is not a drunkard, though
drunkenness is to be found in the land. When
drunk he stays at home and sleeps off his potations.
There are no public-houses tempting him, as in
England, not only at every street corner, but
between the corners as well.

On feast days, anniversaries, new years, See.,
he is fond of celebrating the occasion with his
native wine, which is really a spirit. It is heated,
and drunk out of very tiny cups, holding about
a dessert -spoonful each. Some drink it every day
at dinner ; but these are they who are too fond
of it. It is always present at formal dinners, an.d
aJ few cups of it soon flush up the face of John
Chinaman, who is easily affected by alcohol.

A common amusement whilst drinking is to fling
out the fingers of one hand to another at the
table, who must instantly sing out the words which
he conjectures represent the number of fingers
flung out. If his guess be wrong, the one making

i66

Meals and Snacks

the mistake must^ as a forfeit, drink a cup of wine.
Seated round the dinner -table, these wine -parties
are noisy affairs, and in the English colony of
Hong Kong their restriction has to be enforced
by an ordinance forbidding them after eleven
o’clock at night.

The Chinaman deludes himself into the idea that
he takes only two meals a day : true, he has only
two formal, set meals each day ; but he is always
ready for a snack. When he rises at 5 or 6 a. m.
he has a bowl of congee. His breakfast is at
9 or 10 a.m., and much like his dinner, which is
about 5 p.m. ; but at noon he takes ^ lunch —
some soup or cakes, or something to stay his
stomach. All day the cookshops and foods tails
in the streets, and hawkers of cakes and fruit,
sweetmeats, sugar-cane, and fruit and pickles,
appear to be in demand. At night those whose
business or pleasure takes them about patronise
such vendors as prowl about at late hours, and
even those who stay at home buy from them as
they pass their doors.

Many of the foodstuffs are hawked about the
streets. Even the live fish is brought to the very
doors of the purchasers, floundering in shallow tubs
of water, and weighed out while kicking ; so there
is no fear of stale fish, a thing difficult otherwise
to prevent in a hot climate.

The Chinaman believes in feedingl up while
doing hard work, and some of the boatmen, when
taking their long voyages up or down the mighty

167

What John Chinaman Eats

rivers of South China and working from dewy
morn till dusky eve, stipulate for five meals a day.

John Chinaman is now beginning to indulge in
foreign food. On the lines of foreign-owned
steamers those who can afford it have a choice of
either Chinese fare or English, and not a few
try the latter. With the hundreds of Chinese
students abroad in America and Europe, it is not
to be doubted that the taste acquired in our lands
for our dishes will be carried back to China.

The cooking of John Chinaman’s food is done
generally on red earthenware, round stoves, each,
only large enough to hold one pot or pan or kettle,
which latter often are also of coarse grey earthen-
ware. These are thin, and the substances in them
are quickly heated. One would think economy had
been one of the chief considerations in the manu-
facture of these, and of the iron utensils used in
the preparation of food for the table. For there
is no superabundance of metal employed in the
construction of the latter^ and thus a double
economy is effected : less material is used, and the
price is kept down, and less resistance is offered
to the heat of the fire, thus less wood or charcoal
is burned, which is the fuel of the south. For the
production of the latter the whole country, except
in the remote interior, has been denuded.

All the wood and charcoal is brought down in
boats from up-country ; so that except in the
neighbourhood of monasteries and at the backs
of villages groves are uncommon, though every

i68

Fuel

temple, if possible, has its banyan-tree, and the
grounds of yamens are wooded. Iron saucepans
or kettles are little known, but iron frying-pans
are in constant use, to fry fish and vegetables
and for many other purposes.

In the country fruit-trees abound, being planted
along the high banks which protect the rice-fields
from the river or divide them from one another.
Though wood is cheap, compared with the prices
that prevail in England, yet every economy is
practised with regard to it, none being wasted ;
every chip is picked up (this being the children’s
task in poor families), and not a stick will be
found lying about.

Grass is also used for fuel by the poorer classes ;
especially does this seem to be the case with the
Hakkas. Many of the girls and womenfolk are
busy all day in cutting this on the hillsides and
mountain-slopes. As evening sets in, strings of
them may be met, wending their way down the
steep mountain paths to their homes in the cities
and plains or valleys. Two enonnous bundles
are made up and fastened to a pole, one end of
which is sometimes sharpened, and this is thrust
into one of the trusses. The pole is carried across
one shoulder in the usual way the Chinese carry
burdens .

This indiscriminate cutting of the grass is very
destructive to young plants, trees, and saplings,
very few of the latter being allowed to grow, for,
cut down with the knife' of the grass-cutter, they

169

Wtiat John Chinaman Eats

all add their quota to the eveningi load
The grass is, indeed, used for fodder to some
extent, but largely for fuel. Hence the sterile
appearance of mountain ranges in the south of
China. In winter the dry grass on these heights
is fired, so that a richer crop may result from
the ashes. This, of course, is destructive of plants
and young trees struggling for existence against
such adverse circumstances.

On winter nights one sees for hours these
straggling lines of fire encircling the hills, and
creeping along like fiery serpents or dragons,
forming a most picturesque sight in the darkness.
But the aspect is a very different one when, on
a visit to these spots in daylight, a blackened
mass of cinders and charcoal has taken the place
of what in summer would be luxuriant vegetation.
In the dry winters, when for weeks and months
no rain falls in Southern China, the long grass
dries up, till it looks like growing hay. This
burning grass gives off a peculiar odour. It
flares up, and the fire has to be constantly fed.
With thick iron utensils over the fires, such as
are used in the West, cooking would be difficult ;
but with the thin pots and pans we have already
described it is not so.

The atmosphere of Chinese cities and towns
is not surcharged with smoke and soot, nor does
a pall of darkness in consequence hang over these
centres of population. As yet tall chimneys or
factories are rare, though beginning to appear with

170

Daily Fumigation

the advance of Westerti modes of manufa:cture.
The smoke from kitchen fires and the incense
burned twice a day causes a smarting smoke to
torture the eyes in the streets for an hour or so
morning and evening. This daily smoking, com-
bined with the fragrance of morning and evening
incense, has doubtless a salutary effect on the
health of the city ; for with the reeking filth of
the narrow, tortuous streets it is a wonder that
constant epidemics do not decimate the large
populations that live amidst it all, apparently un-
affected by their insalubrious surroundings.

CHAPTER XIV

John Chinaman’s Doctors

T he doctor does not see John Chinaman into
existence and assist at the process, and so
his chances of surviving birth are much less than
those of young John Bull. At the same time he
assists him out of life, and perhaps sometimes
sooner than necessary were no physicians called
in. We say physicians, for John Chinaman is
not content with one doctor when he is ill.

Not that he has more than one at a time, as
may be the case in our land, when exalted posi-
tion or an abundance of funds may make it usual
for several physicians to be in attendance . But
the Chinaman expects a quick return for the money
he expends on his doctor, or he looks for a speedy
action of the drugs prescribed ; for if the result
expected is not immediate^ he calls another doctor,
and yet another, till the end he wishes is attained,
or until he is beyond doctors* aid.

Some have thought that there are indications
in old Chinese literature thait dissection may have

172

Early Teaching

been knovm in olden times. This is perhaps more
than doubtful ; but, at all events, such a thing-
has not been thought of for centuries on centuries.
In fact, the most empirical notions are extant as
to the organs of the body and their functions ;
but, not-withstanding this, they have anatomical
diagrams. Most grotesque are their ideas of the
human frame as thus depicted, and as described
in their medical books, for Chinese m'edicah writers
have added their quota to the extensive literature
of that land.

In Wylie’s Notes on Chinese Literature, accounts
are given of some eighty works under the heading
of Medical Writers. It is thought that several
centuries before the Christian era some advance
had been made towards a system. There are
now considered to be nine branches of medical
practice : these are blood-vessel and smallpox
complaints, “ fevers, female complaints, cutaneous
complaints, cases of acupuncture, eye complaints,
throat, mouth, and teeth complaints, and bone com-
plaints.” “ The diseases of the inferior animals
have been included, as a subsidiary branch of the
medical profession, from! the earliest times.”

That medical knowledge of a kind has been
in existence in China for ages, in a traditionall
form originally, is proved from the oldest medical
treatise which is extant in that country — one written
at least several centuries B.C. While it must be
remembered that a vol-ume of a Chinese work
is only about the size of one of our smaller monthly

173

John Chinaman’s Doctors

magazines, yet the works of some of the medical
writers run to a great length, as one, a guide
to therapeutics, is in i68 books, containing 1,960
discourses on 2,175 subjects, with 778 rules,
^^?739 prescriptions, and is illustrated with 239
diagrams. Another (“considered one of the most
complete of its kind”) numbers 120 books. Yet
another is in 90 books ; but — ^^one would feel in-
clined to say fortunately for the doctors — the
majority of this class of writers are content with
a few volumes each.

The great Materia Medica is known throughout
Europe amongst all who know anything at all
concerning Chinese literature. It is in 52 books,
and the author, Lay She -Chun, spent thirty years
in its compilation, making extracts from upwards
of 800 preceding authors, besides adding to
the work from his own knowledge. It contains
particulars of 1,892 different medicaments. If
all this were not a sufficient proof of the laborious
and painstaking care the author devoted to his
task, further evidence of it may be, found in the
fact that the author wrote out the manuscript three
times before he was satisfied to let it see the
light of day.

There sometimes seems a substratum of truth
in the Chinese ideas as elaborated in the native
medical books. A main idea seems to be grasped,
and then buried under a fantastic mass of
absurdities. The bones are considered as a sort
of framework that holds the body together ; but

174

The Pulse as Guide

no care is employed to describe them correctly.
It would have been thought that exhumation of
the skeleton from the grave (common in China
for the purposes of fung-shui) would have shown
them that there are two bones in the forearm
instead of one, and the same with the leg. Also,
it would be thought that the osteology of the
different parts of the body would be better known^
for here the same careless nonchalance is dis-
played as to an accurate enumeration and descrip-
tion of the component parts of the bony structure
of the body. They have the most extraordinary
notions as to the circulation of the blood ; and
the pulse is the stronghold of the medical prac-
titioner. By the examination of the pulse the
Chinese doctor considers himself able to diagnose
the disease and fix its locality with precision.

With this infallible aid and guide to ascertain
the seat of the disease and the disease itself, there
is no need to hear the patient describe his sensa-
tions, nor even for that matter to see the patient,
in the case of a woman, who may lie hidden in her
bed with mosquito-net drawn, and simply put her
two hands out through the curtains for the doctor
to feel her pulses. There are three kinds of pulse
for each hand, and each pulse is distinguished
into heavy and light. See., which serve to locate
the disorder. The Chinese believe the beating
of the pulse alone will show the cause and locality
of the disease.

An author who nearly two centuries ago wrote

175

John Chinaman’s Doctors

about the Chinese thus quaintly describes the
solemn and important mode of examining this dis-
closer of medical secrets to the Chinese medical
men :

When they are called to a; sick person^ they
lay his arm upon a pillow, then place their four
fingers along the artery, sometimes gently, and
sometimes hard. They take some time to examine
the beating, and distinguish the differences, how
imperceptible soever, and according to the motion,
more or less quick, full or slender, uniform opr
irregular, which they observe with the greatest
attention, they discover the cause of the disease ;
insomuch that, without asking the patient, they
tell him in what part of the body the pain lies,
whether the head, stomach or belly, or whether
it be the liver or spleen which is affected. They
likewise foretell when his head shall be easier,
when he shall recover his stomach, and when the
distemper will leave him.” ^

It is believed by the Chinese that there are a
thousand differences in the pulse, dependent on
sex, age, stature, and seasons. “Every season of
the year has its proper pulse.” “ In the spring to
have the pulse of the stomach, in the winter the
pulse of the heart, in summer that of the lungs, in
autumn that of the liver, are all very bad.” No
wonder that a book on the pulse in Chinese says,
“ The examination of the pulse is ” in some places
“ very difficult,” and! in another passage in the same
* Du Halde, China, iii. p. 363.

176

The Hot and Cold Causes

text “book, “ We must take great care not to con-
found the different kinds of the pulse, which have
some resemblance between each other/' It is like-
wise enjoined that the physician should be healthy
himself, and in a, state of trancjuillity. A quick'
pulse at the wrist means a pain in the head ;
short and tremulous, heartburn ; and so on page
after page for nearly a hundred pages full direc-
tions are given as to the actions and chalnges
of the nine pulses and the reasons for them'.

Another great belief with the Chinese in regard
to disease and medicaments is the division of com-
plaints into those produced by a cold cause and
vice versa, and the great Materia Medica, which
we have already mentioned, says in this con-
nection : “ Distempers proceeding from a cold

cause require warm medicines [/.«?., not heated
medicines, but those supposed to be of a warm
disposition], and those which proceed from a hot
cause, cold medicines.” It is most amusing to
see how one's native servants are most particular
about taking anything one offers to them, if ill, as,
for instance, they will refuse a foreign drug which
they fancy has a heating tendency if they have
malaria.

The two principles of the yum and yong, the
basis of Chinese philosophy, which pervade all
life and existence, everything being capable of
being placed under the one or the other, also
dominate the whole gamut of disease ; and ail-
ments are ascribed as due to a disagreement of

177

John Chinaman’s Doctors

these, to the presence of bad humours, or to the
evil spirits, and until these agencies are corrected
medicines cannot exercise their full efficacy.’’ As
an example of their reasoning, let the following
suffice, taken from the same Materia Medica:
“ The upper half of the body belongs to the yomg
and the nature of heaven ; thus the medicines
suitable to that part of the body are the head
or tops of the plants ; the body of the plant,
that is, the trunk, is for the diseases of the middle
cavity. The inward half of the body of man
belongs to the yum^ and is of the nature of the
earth, land consequently the roots of the plants
are proper for diseases of the lower parts.”

The physician’s power is limited, according to
one Chinese author ; for he states that there are
six sorts of complaints he cannot cure : “ The

first sort is of the presumptuous or haughty, who
will not listen to reason ; the second sort is of the
covetous, who take greater care of their riches than
of their own bodies ; the third sort is of the poor,
who want the common necessaries of life ; the
fourth sort is of those who have the yum and
ydng irregular ; the fifth sort is of such who, on
account of their extreme weakness and want of
flesh, are not fit to take any sort of remedies ;
the sixth is of those who give credit to quacks
and impostors, and have no faith in regular
physicians.” The utter disregard for a right de-
scription of what lies under the surface of the
skin is balanced by the most minute account of

178

Filial Sacrifice

the surface of the body, which is all mapped out,
and each square inch has its name and connection
with the particular disease fixed on as affecting
the patient.

A sovereign remedy when a parent is ill is
for a son or a daughter to cut a piece of flesh
from his or her own body, generally from the arm
or thigh, with which a broth is made for the
ailing father or mother. Every now and then
a case of the kind is mentioned in the papers.
The Chinese laud such a deed to the skies, as an
exemplary act of filial piety. We are afraid it
is not always voluntary, if an instance described
by a foreign medical practitioner in the Kwong
Tung province is to be taken as an example
of some of the other occurrences of it, which
there seems no reason to doubt may be the
case.

In this attempted cure by means of it, the father
had been under the carte of an English doctor ;
but, with the fatuity of the Chinese, his family
had proceeded to consult the idols, as the patient
had not improved immediately on the first dose
of the foreign medicine given. The god said re-
covery was impossible without the human broth.
The sick man’s daughter was persuaded, by the
highly exalted ideas she had of filial piety, and
also partly by threats, to give a piece of flesh
from her forearm to make the broth. But her
sacrifice was unavailing' ; the father died, and the
martyr daughter succumbed, as her injured arm,

179

John Chinaman’s Doctors

being wrapped up in coarse and dirty rags, became
diseased.

Whatever is nasty is good for medicine in the
opinion of John Chinam,an, one would think ;
but the remedies employed are no more nasty
than what our forefathers took to cure them-
selves. We cannot afford to laugh at John China-
man, as in our own country there still lingers
the remains of a belief in the efficacy of strange
and hideous remedies. In one of the London daily
papers recently an account was given of the venom
from a rattlesnake being extracted, to be used
as an antidote to madness, and one is tempted
to say the cure seems an insane one. If people
in civilised England use such remedies, what can
we expect of the Chinese?

The medical missionary practising amongst the
Chinese comes across some remarkable medica-
ments, and the exhibition of them under the most
peculiar circumstances .

Here are one or two^ instances : A little girl
was forced to drink a concoction of scorpions
and woodlice, as a cure for gastro -enteritis, besides
being burnt in several places. In Roderick Mac-
donald, M.D,, we are told how a poor woman
suffering from cancer was made rapidly worse
by the use of Chinese medicines. “ One side
was completely eaten away by the awful disease,
and all over the raw wounds were spread slices
of putrid pork ! Their reason for this treatment
was the hope that the worms in the pork would

i8o

A Sad Case

attract the worms in the wound^ and in this way
draw out the evil disease.” The patient was washed
and bandaged comfortably ; but later on the
bandages were torn off by her friends, and red
and yellow papers with Chinese characters written
on them were pinned to her clothes and mosquito-
net, and red papers and incense burned under
her bed, to draw out the demons. At last all the
relatives and her husband and children left the
room for her to die alone, frightened to be near
her, from fear of these demons.

The most disgiusting compounds are taken,
sometimes in doses large enough for a horse. One
of the Emperors of China died after being
doctored with a pill of the contents of which
common decency prevents the mention.

The druggists’ shops are a pattern of neatness,
and are nicely fitted up with drawers, shelves,
coimters, and rows of pewter or blue china jars,
and gallipots. The Chinaman knows how to dress
a shop to make it look tempting.

Many of the drugs are simple enough, and roots
are neatly sliced, often across the grain, such as
rhubarb and liquorice-root, and look like botanical
specimens. The herbalists’ shops present a: more
untidy appearance, with bunches of dried herbs
hanging all over the place and overflowing into the
street itself.

One might divide the professors of the healing
art in China into doctors, quacks, and old women,
though the sceptical foreigner would describe

i8i N

John Chinaman’s Doctors

nearly the whole of them under both the second
and third appellations. The first are again divided
by the Chinese into two classes : one is composed
of those who attend to outward diseases or com-
plaints ; and the other is formed of those who look
after internal disorders, generally, as may be
gathered from' what has been already said, in a
blind way. There are no examinations, nor are
diplomas given. Any one can set up as a doctor :
no qualification is required ; but the son of a
physician is supposed to be better equipped for
the tasks of curing others, and more worthy of
trust and confidence, than one who starts without
any predecessor in the art of healing. This is not,
as at first sight might be supposed, due to the
idea of heredity transmitting the talent from' father
to son. It is mainly due to the fact that the
descendant of a doctor will inherit his books of
prescriptions, and thus be set up at once with the
necessary knowledge ready to his hand when he
starts .

Added ectat and prestige are the lot of the man
who can put up over his door that he is a doctor
of the thitd generation. He is then in the public
eye duly qualified, and has no need of aught else
to testify to his ability to kill or cure at sight.
There is no doubt that a: shrewd and intelligent
man may, and does, sometimes hit on rem'edies
which are beneficial ; and Nature, if not stultified,
may be the healer, while the doctor gets the credit
of the cure. But empiricism, ignorance, and pre-

182

Modern Changes

conceived notions largely militate against every-
thing that would assist the novice in his gropings
in the dark.

Not only is preliminary practice wanting ; but
the practice that might be obtained clinically at
the patients’ own bedsides is almost denied him,
or at all events reduced to a minimum, from' the
impatience of the Chinese when under mfedical
treatment, and the resultant custom' to call in
another doctor if the first dose or so of medicine
is not efficacious at once. In a serious case a
dozen or a score of doctors may have tried one
after the other their prentice hands on the sufferer,
who has thus endured many things from many
doctors, and, like the woman in Scripture, grown
worse instead of better from their treatment.

It is possible that, if diligent search were made
amongst the great mass of material of the Chinese
Pharmacopoeia by competent Western apothecaries
and physicians, some remedies might be discovered
of utility : it almost stands to reason that such
would be the case. But fossil crabs and ground
oystef-shells (the latter used for mumps) do not
look very hopeful for, experiment, or, if exhibited,
conducive to recovery.

Happily, the medical missionaries at their
hospitals have trained a number of students in the
principles and practice of Western medicine . These,
with the hundreds of thousands who pass through
the missionary hospitals cured of their ailments,
are making the Chinese in many parts of the

183

John Chinaman’s Doctors

Empire familiar with foreign doctors and foreign
medicine. The new Imperial Medical Department
is also to be strengthened by the addition of doctors
trained in European methods. Thus better days
are dawning for the sick and infirm in China.

184

CHAPTER XV

What John Chinaman Reads

O F the making of books there is no end.

Doubtless this is far more true,, not only in
the Far West, but in the Far East, than it was
in the day when the learned author penned the
statement.

Notwithstanding the iconoclastic zeal of the
ancient and detested Emperor, who swept away
the classic lore of China with a barbarity worthy
of the Goths and of Alexandria, and notwithstand-
ing the more destructive elemfent of fire, which
has consumed many a mammoth library of in-
estimable value, the literature of China seems an
inexhaustible storehouse of volumes on almost
every branch of knowledge or ignorance.

Were the funds of information and the treasures
of interest not locked up in the intricacies of a
language which is a Chinese puzzle -lock to most
Westerners, ardent students by the hundreds and
thousands, instead of the few, would have explored
the vast labyrinth which tantalises by its immensity

185

What John Chinaman Reads

those who would like to wander through all its
intricate paths.

The classics are the sacred books of China' —
the Chinese Pentateuch and Gospels, though there
is no analogy between them and those of our
Sacred Literature except in name, or rather number
— ‘‘The Five Classics” and “The Four Books.”
By the classics are meant these nine volumes which
contain the sayings of Confucius and Mencius
primarily, and secondly, works either edited or
compiled by the former, or bearing the imprimatur
of his ardent approval, or compiled by his
followers.

Were we to select what John Chinaman considers
his best books, they would scarcely exceed one
hundred, the standard apparently set by some in
England ; but a hundred times the number, or a
hundred times that, would not tell the tale of all
his books.

A large mass of works has accumulated round
the classics in the way of commentaries, &c.
Histories are large and voluminous, dealing with
whole dynasties or certain periods. Some of the
ancient ones are dry as dust, consisting of a mass
of isolated facts, or what are thought to be facts,
stated in the most bald and uninteresting style.
A blazon of glory gathers round one semi-historical
book, or novel rather, which narrates the story
of events in the feudal times. But, as a rule, novels
are considered by the Chinese to hold quite a
secondary position. In fact, a secondary position

i86

New Wine, Old Bottles

is far too high a one for them'. Novelists seldom
put their names to their productions^, as was the
case once in the West as well.

Barring the classics and what pertains to them,
poetry and belles-lettres^ the other productions of
the press are considered by the educated Chinese
as inferior in quality, though in quantity their
numbers are great.

It may be stated as an axiom' of Chinese life
that nearly all that is old is considered to be
excellent. The old wine is better ; or at least was
until recently, when the vintages produced in
the West having been sampled and tested, a
change is coming over John Chinamlan’s taste.
At present, the experiment of putting the old wine
into new bottles, or rather the new wine of Western
civilisation, learning, and education into the old
bottles of Chinese thought, is being tried, with the
result that the inevitable fermentation has set in,
sometimes with disastrous results, and unrest and
outbursts may take place, till new bottles are
turned out in sufficient numbers in the way of
preparation of large numbers of Eastern minds, by
shaping them into more progressive modes, so as
to be able to assimilate the new.

The foundations of an education removed from'
the narrow basis of Chinese knowledge are being
laid in China: on a large scale. As a result, some
of the youths of China would make their grand-
fathers turn in their narrow geomantic graves and
spoil all the fung-shui^ii they knew that their scions

187

What John Chinaman Reads

were discarding the old classics, the glory of
ancient and modern China, and actually saying that
they had no use for them, and they were of no
account.

There is one thing that redounds to the honour
of the Chinese, and which should be flung into the
teeth of their detractors ; and that is that there is
not a single impure passage in the whole classical
literature of China ; this is also true if we
extend the term “ classical ” to our conception of
what that word implies, and do not limit it to
the sacred books of China only. There is not
such a high standard of purity in the novels. One
at least is shockingly bad, and in some there is
a tendency occasionally towards the mention of
things that had better be left unsaid. The general
tone is not impure.

This is all the more extraordinary when one
realises how unclean John Chinaman’s mouth is.
The Eastern atmosphere has apparently something
to do with this ; but when all is said, his foulness
does not go very far beyond, if any farther, than
that some of the lower classes in England indulge
in. It seems to us in the West a peculiar trait of
mind which permits the constant reference to
subjects which are tabooed in polite society with
us. This gives a familiarity of treatment which
is apt, according to our present-day ideas (though
three hundred years ago our ancestors took the
same position with regard to them), to develop
into excessive freedom of speech about matters

i88

Chinese Literature

which had better be left alone. John Chinaman
does not swear, or but seldom ; but he heaps
odium on the mother and ancestors of his adver-
sary, by suggesting the grossest crimes.

So does he familiarise himself with this form
of objurgation that he can scarce open his mouth
without using these forms of speech, which, used
simply as exclamations, convey no meaning, so
debased are they by constant employ, much after
the manner of some in England.

To quote the Quarterly Review once, more : —
“ The Chinese stand eminently distinguished from
other Asiatics by their early possession and exten-
sive use of the important art of printing.” “ Hence
they are, as might be expected, a reading people ;
a certain degree of education is common among
even the lower classes.” “ Among the higher it is
superfluous to insist on the great estimation in
which letters must be held, under a system' where
learning forms the very threshold of the gate that
conducts to fame, honour, and civil employment.

“ Amid the vast mass of printed books which is
the natural offspring of such a state of things, we
make no scruple to avow that the circle of their
belles-lettres, comprised under the heads of Drama,
Poetry, and Novels, has always possessed the
highest place in our esteem.” ‘‘We must say that
there appears no readier or more agreeable mbde
of becoming intimately acquainted with a people
from whom Europe can have little to learn on
the score of either moral or physical science, than

189

What John Chinaman Reads

by drawing largely on the inexhaustible stores of
their ornamental literature.”

As to fiction, there are 18,000 well-known
novels. The following description from a work
by myself will convey some idea of the Chinese
novel :

“ A Chinese novel is generally a finished sketch
in black and white — very black and very white,
no softening down nor shading : the characters
stand out in bold relief. The villains are as
black as black can be, and form the deepest
background, to throw into relief the virtuous hero
and heroine, and their friends, helpers, and well-
wishers. The hero is a paragon of excellence,
physically, mentally, and morally. He often
possesses the prowess of a warrior, the intellect of
a senior wrangler, while as regards the virtues
he stands at high-water mnrk.

“ The heroine — but what need to describe her?
It is needless to say she is charming, as seen
through Chinese spectacles ; her lover will
generally find her — in this so different from' the
real Chinese women — so well acquainted with
letters as to lift her from' the mere position of a
doll, and withal ‘ a clever, resourceful, and modest
young lady.’ Apparently insuperable difficulties
are piled up, of course, by the novelist, for him‘ to
clear away by his consummate skill in the un-
ravelling of the plots and intrigues against hero
and heroine, and all comes well in the end, not
with the ringing of marriage-bells, for such things

190

Chinese Poetry

are unknown in China, but with the red wedding
sedan-chair, the firing of crackers and beating of
gongs, and feasting.” ^

‘‘ The whole subject of Chinese poetry is worthy
of a more thorough treatment than it has yet
received. One peculiar element is the tones which
in the Chinese language give a musical note
unknown in foreign tongues, to which attention has
to be paid by the Chinese poet, apart from' the
identity of some required for rhyme.” “ The
Chinese language lends itself readily to the poetic
art ; harsh consonantal sounds are wanting, and
the combination of consonants and vowels is often
musical. Though largely monosyllabic, the
diphthongs give a somewhat dissyllabic character
to many of the words. The cadence and mbdula-
tion required are to be found in the tones of the
Chinese language, and every word takes the place
of a foot occupied by a metrical foot in our
Western poetry.” 2

“ In the hands of an accomplished writer, the
Chinese language is capable of a condensed
picturesqueness and vigour, such as can be
rendered into no foreign language less ideographic
in its mode of writing, unless by means of wordy
paraphrases. Each character in its (often
numerous) component parts carries a wealth of
imagery to the sense, and whole series of mOtaphors

* Things Chinese, by J. Dyer Ball. 4th Edition, p. 485.

® Ibid., pp. 539-40. Also see Rhythms and Rhymes in Chinese
Climes : A Lecture on Chinese Poetry and Poets. By J. Dyer Ball.

191

What John Chinaman Reads

are embodied in a! sing'le epithet. A language of
this kind lends itself especially to the description
of the scenery, and the most superficial analysis
of Chinese poetry reveals the fact that the pro-
ductions which are most applauded in this branch
of literature consist simply of elaborate word-
painting, whose beauty resides rather in the
medium of expression than in the author’s thought.
Hence it happens that when odes, renowned for
centuries amiong Chinese readers, are transposed
into the naked languages of Europe, it is found
that their charm! has vanished, as the petals of a
flower are dropped from' the insignificant and
sober-coloured fruit.”

The youth in his studies learns his first lessons
to a tripping rhyming measure. After going
through two or three small books of this character,
he devotes some time in his scholastic and
collegiate course to a number of the classics in
prose, but, if he continues his studies, sooner or
later he finds his curriculum embraces the ancient
Book of Odes, a collection of over three hundred
ancient folk-songs, consisting of songs, ballads,
heroic odes, sacrificial hymns, and love-songs,
handed down from centuries before our Christian
era.

Poetry seems to have adapted itself to all con-
ditions of Chinese life. Entering in at a city gate
one may sometimes see a proclamation in rhyme,
issued by some high official; a notice put up by
your native servants in the servants’ quarters of

192

Chinese Poets

your house will also be at times in jingling
measures; the ritual or exordium read by Taoist
priests to the bridegroom and bride of the boat
population is in lines of verse. The verses used
at wedding feasts as a play or game are in
quatrains. The oracles are in verse. Balla'd’-books
abound, and for the delight of those who cannot
read as well as of those who can, ballad-singers
go about, ready to be hired to sing in a recitative
strain^ accompanying themselves with a tinkling
instrument. Blind singing-girls with their duennas
and guitars seek engagements at night. Thus
poetry and song and music surround the Chinaman.

It would be impossible here to enumerate the
names and works of poets in a' land where poets
abound, and every higher educated schoolboy ,is
taught to compose in verse as well as in prose.
Among some of the foremost poets of China were
Lay Tai Pak (30 volumes), and So Toong Poh,
whose works, poetic and prose, are contained in
1 15 volumes. These two produced rough
diamonds and polished gems. But these are only
two out of many famous ones.

One specimen, translated by the present author
from the second of these two poets, is entitled —

A WARRIOR BOLD.

A Warrior bold
In Ho Sai old;

Alas ! but no one knows him now.

Athwart the stream
Where waters gleam

He sees the boats through billows plough.

193

What John Chinaman Reads

His piebald steed
Has run to weed,

Nor bears his master to the fray ;

His lance so long,

In arm so strong,

A beam, nor man, nor elf could stay.

And now the toll
This noble soul

Must count the livelong summer’s day,

And fret himself
With hoarded pelf,

And wear his wasted life away.

From Western lands
Our beaten bands

Return ; but he our land could save ;

He’d mount his steed,

And take the lead
Before ten thousand troopers brave.

And foemen die,

As arrows fly,

And sheathe themselves in quivering flesh,

Then from my car
I’d watch afar

My hero’s valour rise afresh.

Besides this, two love-songs must suffice for
specimens of Chinese poetry:

TO FIND A HEART THAT’S TRUE.

And oh ! to find a heart that’s true ;

For winning it there’s naught I’d rue.

And e’en in death I’d seek it yet,

Nor ceasing but till it I’d met.

194

Amorous Verse

And then a glance would test its truth,
And yet a glance would test its ruth ;
With love as test we'd surely meet
In happy troth, in counsel sweet.

Alas 1 but fraud has had its way.

And fraud on fiaud has won the day ;

An empty heart is all that’s left.

Beware, or ere your heart's bereft.

E’en though he comes with heart of steel,
111 test him twice to test the real ;

111 test him thrice to know his heart.

Or ere he comes with guileful art.

OH ! CORD OF THOUGHTS OF LOVE.

Oh ! Cord of Thoughts of Love,

That binds us from abo\e,

Canst thou but draw him here,

Oh ! bring him to me near.

If strength is in thy strands.

Then loose not thou the bands
Of heartstrings’ blended length,

For hence their wondrous strength.

Oh ! Cord of Thoughts of Love.

That binds us from above,

If one doth cast me by,

Befooled with hateful lie,

I spurn thee. Cord of Hate :

I hate thee for that state.

Thou draw’st us heart from heart,

And mak’st true love to part.

Oh ! Cord of Thoughts of Love,

That binds us from above.
Love-worthy now thy meed;

Thou draw’st us back indeed.

195

What John Chinaman Reads

From either side away

We’re dragged, nor can we stay ;

Thus bound in union sweet,

I know not when we meet.

Oh ! Cord of Thoughts of Love,

That binds us from above.

Alas ! my heart is thine,

’Midst stormy skies and fine.

Its love is in thy heart,

Inshrined with guileless art.

My heart’s best love to thee, my life
Is given. Oh ! keep it true from strife.

Oh ! Cord of Thoughts of Love,

That binds us from above.

Oh ! pity ’tis that you
From time to time anew
Do cut the cord that binds.

And then my spirit finds
In riot wild my heart
And beating bosom start.

Oh ! Cord of Thoughts of Love
That binds us from above.

I swear by stream and hill,

An oath by mount and rill,

That hearts must never change,

If Love apart doth range,

Nor cord will then us bind ;

Our ways apart we find.

It is impossible in the space of a few pages to
give any idea of the immense mass of Chinese
literature in all its many branches. Take for
example the one heading of Buddhism. Under
this are to be found nearly two thousand transla-
tions by the early Buddhists in China — Hindoo

196

Western Influence

and native — ^ma'de from the Sanscrit, without taking
into account the original works which in time came
under that category, and were written by Chinese
adherents of that faith. It will thus be seen how
vast and extensive a range Chinese literature
embraces. Modern works of one kind and another
pour out from the press in great and increasing
numbers.

A fresh impetus has been given of late with
the desire of the Chinese to learn all the West
has to teach them; for now Western science and
knowledge is being laid under contribution to an
almost unprecedented extent. Unfortunately,
though, all that is translated and thus appropriated
and assimilated is not of the highest class, even
bad novels to pander to the low passions of the
vile being included. Standard books as well are,
however, being spread broadcast amongst the
educated in large numbers.

There is much hope for China when we
remember, as one author says, that “ the Chinese
are great prose-writers, and express facts con-
nected with all their civilisation and quasi-art and
science with much accuracy. Their libraries are
stored with works on medicine, astrology, astro-
nomy, geography, hydrography, and religion.
Many of their works are mines of native lore,
and display an ability and knowledge which might
have been turned to better account, had the authors
enjoyed free intercourse with the men of science
of the West. The Chinese possess a power of

197 o

What John Chinaman Reads

observation the most minute, supplemented by a
patient and persevering spirit, which even in the
absence of higher qualities will serve them in good
stead when they take to the serious studies of
Western art and science.”

This passage was written some thirty-three years
ago. The time thus foreshadowed has arrived, and
the nation is now availing itself of those advan-
tages which were denied it for so many centuries
that it took years to perceive that what was offered
was worthy of its acceptance.

A new branch of literature has sprung up within
the last few years in the modern newspapers, and
these are now numbered by hundreds.

198

CHAPTER XVI

John Chinaman Afloat

A POPULATION large enough to fill a
kingdom peoples the rivers, the waterways,
and coast-line of China. Here are millions who
never go to sea, but whose lives are more spent
on the water than even sailors’ lives are. With us
few are seafaring men from the moment of their
birth to that of their death; but all the Chinese
boat people start their first breath on some small
sampan which has withdrawn from the others. One
of the bamboo semi-cylindrical movable covers
over the centre of the boat has been hauled down
over the entrance to this mid-portion of the craft,
while the business of admitting another puling,
tiny specimen of John Chinaman on to the troubled
waters of life is being attended to. His mother
is too busy to give up much rime to him, and a
few days finds the boat in its usual rank, and
mother busy plying the oar again.

A British sea-captain has authority to perform
the marriage ceremony while at sea; but it is

199

John Chinaman Afloat

rarely that such a raarriage is celebrated, much
less that it is a sailor who is thus marriecL
These Chinese boat people, however, are married
on the water. The presents precedent to the
wedding are carried in boats from the vessels
one party to the union resides on to those of the
other party. For the Carrying out of the ceremony
large marriage-boats are to be hired with scarlet
hangings, together with music of wind instruments,
and gorgeous wedding garments of the propitious
colour — scarlet — but without the large red flowery
sedan-chair which every landswoman must ride
in once as a bride, but never again. With all
this rejoicing and “ double joy the little boat-
girl is wedded to her mate as securely on the
water as her countrywoman the landsman’s bride
on terra firma.

And last of all when, after all their long toil
and lives of hardship, the occupants of sampans,
passage-boats, and junks go to their long rest, it
is from the craft on which they die-— the last cere-
monies having been performed — that the dead
are taken on shore, and in the huge coffins
laid to rest in the same mother earth as the
landsmen.

Like the gondolas of Venice, the sampans are
the cabs in Chinese cities and towns which have
a sea or river frontage; the cargo-boats and
lighters are the drays and waggons and carts,
which are utterly unknown in the south, and not
only take off goods to the vessels lying in the

200

W ater-t raders

harbour, stream, or ofifing, but also transport goods
and merchandise from one part of the shore to
the other.

Nearly all the peripatetic traders and hawkers
on land have their counterpart in little boats, which
supply every commodity required by the boat
people and those who have a river frontage.
Your gafden can be stocked with flowers, or pots
placed on your verandah front the florist’s little
boat, groceries bought, cloth purchased from other
tiny little craft — miniature little stores, where well-
nigh every available niche of room is occupied
with goods for sale.

Fish, alive and floundering, so near their free-
dom in the broad river, but confined in the boat
of the floating fishmonger, are brought to the side
of your own boat, and in the same way the boat-
man-greengrocer has a choice of the season’s
vegetables fresh from the market-gardener’s
weedless rows, brought, we were about saying,
to your very door itself. The oil-man, too, not
ready to pour his oil on the troubled waters, but
anxious for you to buy it for lamp, or to fry
your vegetables and fish that the passing green-
grocer and fishmonger have just supplied you
with.

Do you want a bowl to eat your rice out of, or
a flower-pot to put a cactus or some other treasure
into at the stern of your boat, alongside the hen-
coop, hanging out over the water ? The crockery-
seller will soon be along paddling his tiny craft,

201

John Chinaman Afloat

weighed down to the water’s edge with his frail
ware. After him will come the floating isoup-
kitchen, with its pots of savoury fish or other
soup boiling over its furnaces in the bottom of
the boat. And when most of these have ceased
their plying up and down the river for trade, and
the inky blackness of the water succeeds to the
light of day, with only a dancing twinkling ray of
light flashing now and then across the gloom on
the deep stream, in unison with the surroundings
comes the eerie cry in winter of the seller of hot
sugar-cane, with its weird effects, as it dies away
in a long-drawn tone of voice.

All these and many others by day and night row,
or scull, or paddle up and down the river, catering
for the wants of multitudes, who thus can save
the trouble of going on shore to make their
purchases.

Amidst the busy scene the shrimp-catcher is
throwing his basket-traps from his boat in long
lines, to bring up these toothsome dainties for
the market. His wife rows, and he casts in his
traps, occasionally taking his share at the oars.
Ferry-boats slowly cross the river with their
complement of a dozen passengers, seated in two
rows facing each other, as in a London ’bus. Each
passenger pays two cash for crossing a river a
quarter of a mile wide— that is, a twentieth of a
penny. The loads of the coolies :are put in the
bows of the boat, where also occasionally is to
be seen a leper, who is not allowed amongst the

202

Boat-life

other passengers. The ferryman yeeoo-loes at the
stern.

A few years ago, shooting every now and then
amongst these, was to be seen a small sampan,
vigorously sculled by one man at the stern, and
rowed by another at the bows. On one of the seats
inside lay the bag of smuggled opium they were
hastening to deliver.

Hundreds, nay thousands, of all sorts of boats
and vessels are passing up or down, or moored, or
anchored, at the banks or further out in midstream.
Here are lying long boats with the usual matting
covers extending nearly the whole length of the
narrow craft, which has turned-up bows and stern
to cope with the rapids it has shot coming down,
and has to breast going up one of the long water-
ways of China. These up-country boats consort
together (as do many of the different vessels of
one sort or class), and a score or two, or even
larger numbers of them, may be seen lying along-
side one another in great strings near the banks.
There are certain spots where each kind of boat
lies, and those who know the river and its ways
know just where their anchorages are.

The different kinds of boats — and they are
numerous — ^which may be classed under the generic
term of houseboats also gather each after his kind
in one spot, and one may sec streets of them.
They are fastened to a long apd large rope cable
which runs along under their bows. The front
platforms, all in a line, look like the sidewalk in a

203

John Chinaman Afloat

Street, and the boat people pass from one to the
other, and sit out in the open smoking and chatting
to one another when thus laid up in harbour.
The sampans and little boats pass up and down
the open waterway in front of them, like cabs
in a street. Sometimes two rows face each other,
and the illusion is complete.

When one of these is hired for a day’s excur-
sion or a long trip up-country, it comes out of
its line, and all is bustle for the voyag'e. The
master’s wife and children live on board. They
occupy the stern, where the galley is. The
travellers who have hired the boat take the whole
centre part, 'where there are one or two small cabins
and two or three large compartmients, which serve
as sitting, or dining-rooms, and, if necessary,
bedrooms at night.

The boatmen navigate the boat from the front
platform, where in one kind of boat a huge oar
sticks out from the bows, to help in the steering,
though there is an enormous rudder at the stern
as well. Galleries run along both sides of the
vessel on which the boatmen run when poling or
“ quanting ” (as we believe it is termed on the
Norfolk Broads) the boat. If necessary some half-
dozen or dozen of the crew will go ashore and
track her, on the rough excuse for a path on the
bank. At other times, as an auxiliary force or
even alone, a small boat, attached as a tug to the
large vessel, tows her in front, the small boat being
propelled by half a dozen men standing and

204

Boat Journeys

rowing. Oars are also used at times ; but with a
strong and good wind sail is hoisted, and so by
one means or another the heavy, huge boat pro-
gresses with fair wind or against foul, unless she
perches herself high and dry on a sand-bank, when,
if necessary, help is sought from any craft in the
neighbourhood to assist in getting her off.

Besides the luggage of the passenger and his
family who have hired her, the wily captain and
his crew have managed to load bags of smuggled
salt (salt being a Government monopoly in China)
into the hold, where they lie perdaes till the oppor-
tunity for disposing of them has arrived. The
Chinaman has always an eye for the main chance ;
and though you have hired his boat, he manages,
unknown to you, or sometimes before your very
eyes, to take a cargo on board as well. At
nightfall the boat anchors, glad to get near a
town, or be in company with a number of others,
for fear of the enterprising pirate.

Then there were the enormous flower -boats of
Canton, which are almost, if not quite, a thing
of the past. One of their functions was to serve
for the dinner parties of gentlemen where, as
Chinese customs forbid men meeting their friends’
wives or respectable women at the dinner-table,
they consorted with those whom their wives would
not receive in their own homes. Standing high
out of the water, they formed a butt for the wild
cyclones known in the East as typhoons, and great
was the wreck when one of greater strength than

205

John Chinaman ABoat

usual swept over the waters . As these boats
ministered to vice^ official prohibitions were ful-
minated against them every now and then, and
they were driven from pillar to post. Finally,
made of most inflamniable materials with wood-
carvings of considerable dimensions, a great fire
has swept them pretty well out of existence, when
hundreds of the poor inmates perished. Even
before this the largest ones were disappearing,
as robbers attacked them and carried off the
inmates to sell.

Then there are the different passage-boats, as
they are called, which have occupied the position
which local trains do in our countries in the West.
They start at an early hour in the morning from
certain spots on the river front. Most of them
nowadays, since the awakening of China to steam
power, are towed by steam launches. They carry
hundreds of passengers, who are packed so closely
together that it is a wonder how they can all
get in. There are three tiers of decks, and it
is a mystery how the Chinese sit for hours in
these cramped-up positions. At long intervals one
capsizes, and the loss of life is infinitely worse
than in a railway accident in England, caged up
and caged in as most of the passengers are.

Besides these passenger-boats there are the
large two -masted boats which take the place of
the goods train, and sail away for two or three
days’ journey, laden with goods.

But time would fail to tell of the thousand and
206

Sea Voyages

one different craft that are to be found on the
rivers, canals, creeks, and waterways of China.
Each town often rejoices in some type of vessel
slightly different from those of other towns, while
at the same time using many that are common
to adjacent parts.

Besides all these inner-water craft, there are
the sea-going fishing -smacks and trawlers and
numerous fishing-junks of one sort and another,
which supply the enormous market for fish in
China, dead and alive, salt and fresh, with such
a variety that if one ate everything that comes out
of the sea, as the Chinese do, there would be
a new kind of fish for every day in the year.
For they range from the baby oyster to the shark
or dog-fish, from the toothsome, semi-translucent
white-rice fish to the green -boned garupa.

The large sea -going junks have been run off
the coast by the modern steamer ; but fifty years
ago they voyaged to Siam and the Straits Settle-
ments, Java, Sumatra, the Moluccas, the Celebes,
the Eastern Archipelago, and all that part of Asia.
Some centuries ago they vied with us in the West
in the long ocean voyages they took to Ceylon,
India, the Persian Gulf, and the Red Sea.

In the olden days these large sea-going Chinese
junks came down from Tientsin and the north of
China with the north-east monsoon to Canton^
where, if they did not go further down the coast
and on to foreign parts, they lay for months till
the south-west monsoon was ready to fill their

207

John Chinaman Afloat

enormous sails and take them home again. They
were three- or four-masted^ with great jaws in
front, gaping mouth at hows, two eyes, to be able
to see their way, and high stern-sheets. Such
adventurous voyages are now things of the past.

These junks looked cumbrous and unwieldy, and
it is a wonder they weathered the dreadful storms
and awful typhoons they encountered with their
large matting sails. At such times the tendency
was for every sailor tO' become captain, and the
roar of the storm was supplemented by the pande-
monium on board, where every man was shouting
orders, and all was confusion and clamour.

Not all these adventures on distant voyages were
for material advantage. Some who travelled to
these far regions were Buddhist monks, who
journeyed to the sacred places of their faith and
braved seas and storms to bring the treasures
of their sacred writings and relics of Buddha to
the land they were conquering for their religion.
The even greater dangers of the overland route
to India were encountered ; Alpine heights scaled,
precipices crossed, and deserts traversed, where,
in addition to the physical risks met, the travellers’
minds were tortured by the calls of demons who
bewitched them to their destruction.

John Chinaman makes a good sailor : he does
not get drunk ; he is content with a smaller wage
than the Englishman ; to him a hard board is
a softer mattress than a hair one, or even one of
down ,* he, as a rule, is quiet and well-behaved

208

Chinese Sailors

when he is not treated with impudence^, super-
ciliousness, and injustice ; he obeys orders and
does what he is told. Not only are Chinese largely
employed on the coasting steamers and on the
ocean liners as carpenter's and washermen, but
on the private lines as sailors.

Quite a number are to be found in the East
End of London, awaiting ships to take them home
again. A number of Chinese shops are estab-
lished for their headquarters in or about Rat-
cliffe Highway, and smaller numbers ar'e to be
found in Liverpool, where a good many Chinese
find employment as washermen.

Some of the vessels afloat belong to the Govern-
ment ; and history records not a few expeditions
beyond the seas, to gain Formosa and fight Japan.
One that essayed to discover the famed Isles of
the Blest never returned from the quest.

The China Merchants Company is one of
the latest developments, following the exploit-
ing of the Chinese coasts and rivers by foreign-
owned steamers. Its boats run up and down the
sea-coasts and up some of China’s giant rivers,
though this company has not, like the Japanese,
or, for that matter, their own ancestors of ancient
and mediaeval days, penetrated to the Far W;est
yet. The boats are captained and officered by
Englishmen. Some Chinese merchants own
steamers ; especially is this the case in the
Straits Settlements. Several hundreds at least of
Chinese-owned steam-launches ply on the inland

209

John Chinaman Afloat

waters of the Empire. These are entirely manned
and run by the Chinese.

Large rafts slowly float down the rivers,
managed by a few men, who, spending days and
weeks on the frail structure of logs and beams,
bring them down from far up-country where the
forest-destroying propensities of John Chinaman
have not yet exterminated nearly all the masses of
trees, as is the case nearer the coast. Huts built
on the moving mass shelter the primitive naviga;-
tors, as, borne by current and stream, they navigate
the hundreds of miles to the towns and cities where
the rafts are broken up.

At every landing-place and every street-end
that abuts on the river in a g'reat city, and
wherever there is a chance of picking up ai
passenger on the river front, there is to be found
— shall we call it? — a stand for little boats. The
boat -women who “ man ” them are busy chopping
up rounds of bamboo into sticks for incense-sticks,
or, engaged in something else to add to the family
income when no fares are forthcoming. When-
ever a probable passenger appears in sight,
approaching the water’s edge, a perfect uproar
arises as the women rush to the bows of their
little boats, beckoning to the prospective passenger.

As soon as they learn where the fare wishes
to go, they name their price. .<4 la Chinois, they
ask more than they expect to get, and then follows
a noisy bargaining. The intending hirer offers
less than he is willing to give. One boat -woman

210

Hiring a Boat

will drop her price a trifle, when all tlie others
follow suit ; and so it goes on, one side lowering
its terms and the other raising theirs, till finally
the traveller accepts some figure named, steps on
to one of the boats, and then, as if by magic,
the hubbub instantly ceases, and quiet succeeds
the babel and uproar.

2II

CHAPTER XVII

How John Chinaman Travels

T he modes of travelling in the south of China
are by boat and chair ; midway up the
coast wheelbarrows come into use ; and further
up in the north, ponies, donkeys^, or mules, litters,
and carts. Jinrickshas ply for hire in a few
places where roads are roads, and not narrow
tracks — such, for example, as in Hong Kong,
Shanghai, Hankow, and Macao. They are found,
too, in some purely Chinese cities, which those
places are not— notably in Nanking, where ai broad
carriage -road has been made.

The beginning of a network of railways is being
cast over the land, in the way of a few main lines
and some local ones. Though John Chinaman
does not evacuate the cities and towns in summer
and take by storm the seaside, fly to the moun-
tains, or dash off on excursions by the hundreds
and thousands, he yet does a good deal of
travelling, or at least some Chinese do. Travellers
on business are numerous. If a dollar or two

212

Travel Times

can be made, they set forth eagerly in the pursuit
of wealth ; the market -toxTOS are invaded on
market-days by hosts of those who have things
to sell, or who wish to buy.

But the great time to see a regular exodus
from cities and towns is the season for visiting
the tombs, in April especially. Then the boats
are crowded with passengers ; every route home
is thronged with travellers ; the hill-sides are black
with descendants and relatives of the dead, busily
employed in worshipping at the graves on these
heights.

If John Chinaman falls ill, and a few doses of
medicine do not restore him again, he slips off
home to the country, where he can die amongst
his friends, or be revivified by his native air.
Thousands and tens of thousands have to travel
to examination centres, and on reaching the higher
stages of their education, even go to Peking from
distant parts of the Empire. Officials have to
travel from one end of the Empire to the other
to take up their appointments. Insurrection and
rebellion send troops from one province to another.
Theatrical troupes tour the country with vessels
laden with their scanty scenery, properties, and
multitudinous and gorgeous robes, costumes, and
apparel.

Unless he is a high official, with trunks by
the score for wives, and children, and servants,
and attendants, John Chinaman's travelling
arrangements are simple. Like the man in

2x3 P

How John Chinaman Travels

Scripture, he takes up his bed and walks. The
bed consists of a mat, a leathery papier-miche,
hard pillow, or even an earthenware one, a red
blanket, and a cotton-stufifed quilt ; but in summer
even less. He may also take a teapot, some cakes,
perhaps a brass basin, a small towel, a quantity
of clothes, a pipe and a fan. The bedding is
in a roll, and the rest in a large basket or small
trunk.

Arrived on the boat or steamer, he selects an
eligible spot, spreads out his mat, takes ofif his
shoes, and squats or reclines, while the hours slip
by unheeded, gets hot water to wipe over his face
and brush his teeth in the morning, takes his
meals on board, and generally enjoys himself in
a placid manner, smoking, chatting to his fellow-
passengers, or listening to the quack who harangues
cleverly and eloquently by the hour, or he reads,
or listlessly does nothing— an art the Oriental can
carry to perfection. The sedan-chair is a more
expensive mode of travel, and not every one can
afford it.

It is a sight near a city or market-town to
see men, women, and children hastening to the
former, or carrying marketable articles to the
latter, as they walk with their half -trot along the
high banks of the river ; for John Chinaman can
go at a good amble when loaded with wares, or
carrying his own luggage on a journey. But the
gentleman, and occasionally the lower classes of
society, indulge in the chair.

214

The Chair

The mandarin is carried in stately style, and
the higher his rank the grander the pomp and
circumstances surrounding his retinue. The very
highest in official position may sport eight bearers ;
but the majority may not aspire to more than
four, while the mere gentleman has perforce to
be content with two or three. The insignia carried
in the procession, the number of the retinue, the
colour of his chair, as well as his uniform,
&c., all proclaim the greatness of the “ great
man.’’

If an official promenade does not require a
measured tread and slow, the movement is a
gliding one, as in Canton, where chair-carrying is
an art. With an ordinary individual in the city the
carriers keep up a constant succession of cries,
to clear their way in the crowded streets, or warn
their fellow in the shafts behind of steps and
obstructions, while responses are echoed back.
These sing-song cries are added to by admoni-
tions to careless w^farers and to other chair-
bearers .

“ Mind your back ! ” “ To the left ! ” “ Both

of us to the left ! ” “ Both to right ! ” “ Two

steps down ! ” These and similar cries and warn-
ings punctuate the whole transit through the
narrow lanes that serve for streets when they are
thronged with the surging crowd. The most care-
ful edging or backing into shops is required when
one chair meets another under such circumstances.
The passing of vessels in the Suez Canal is nothing

215

How John Chinaman Travels

to it^ and traffic is suspended while one chair
scrapes past the other.

In country districts, or for country excursions,
the sedan-chair presents a striking contrast to its
superior city cousin ; it is then town versus country
with a vengeance. The former is fairly comfort-
able, with a cushion to sit on, and possibly one
for the back, albeit the cushions are almost as
hard as the soft side of a board. There are
wooden shelves at the sides for the arms^ and
a loose slip of polished wood is ready also to be
placed in front of one, to reach from side to side
—from one arm-rest to the other, to rest one’s
elbows on. Thus the passenger is enabled to lean
forward and better view the constant panoramic
scene before him.

A constant kaleidoscopic transmutation takes
place as the animated scene dissolves itself and
the living cinematographic display unfolds. Long
vistas of gorgeous signboards in gold, vermilion,
and green open out in continual succession, a feast
of colour. The bright rays of a fiery tropical sun
are tempered by loose boards or trellis -work, or
awnings covering the shaded streets. Glints of
sunlight percolate, settling in radiant gleams on
any non-absorbent object, and relieving from
gloom anything they touch, though the general
effect in many a street is that of a shaded half-
toned light.

It is a bustling scene that meets the eye as
one is whisked through some main thoroughfare.

216

Through Crowded Streets

A constant stream is flowing along its nai'row con-
fines. Gentlemen in silk robes of tender hues of
cerulean blue and satin jackets gleaming in purple
and other colours, are jostled by coolies carrying
agricultural produce and manures for the fields,
and elbowed by fishmongers with live fish in tubs
of water. Now a string of blind beggars meanders
through the thick traffic, making for shop after
shop, to extort by their monotonous whine a stray
cash or two ; while a sturdier rowdyish scamp,
with self-inflicted blood-stained wounds, demand's
alms with impudence and assurance. Anon a
wreck of humanity with festering hands and fast-
rotting, toeless feet rubs shoulders with the
elegantly dressed merchant, who loathes the sight
of the distorted and swollen face of the dreaded
leper. The burden -carriers of all kinds and classes
push by, heralding their advent by their twofold
cries, some to clear the path before them, and
others to ease the weight of their heavy loads.
Those in pairs carry on a constant duet, as the
hinder man responds with grunts to the calls of
the one in front.

It seems a strange medley ; for footpath and
roadway are all thrown into one. The whole road-
way is a side -walk or roadway or path free to all,
pedestrians and riders, the empty-handed and the
heavily burdened, in the two streams that are
setting in opposite ways. There are no wheeled
vehicles in the south, except rarely a stonemason’s
primitive wheelbarrow, creaking with every revolu-

217

How John Chinaman Travels

tion of the wheel, in protest at the slabs of granite
on it. And, wonder of wonders, of late years there
has come the bicycle, ridden by some young
Chinaman, with queue tucked into his leggings,
and piloting his course through the surging crowd
with infinite care and constant ringing of bell.
Fancy a bicycle running on a London sidewalk,
and the reader will have some idea of what this
means. Narrow as the way is, congested with
the streaming multitudes, yet its boundaries are
encroached on at both sides by the overflowing
shops, especially the grocers’ and rice -dealers’,
whose baskets of grain cross the thresholds and
infringe on the streets.

Nor is this all, for the city traveller’s chair
almost brushes over the petty trader’s little store
of goods, which are set out in tempting array on
the long stone slabs which pave the side of the
streets where vacant from the overflowing shops.
Here the seller of small brochures, ballad-books,
does a good trade with his red and brown paper
pamphlets spread on the stones^ or hung in rows on
the blue brick house wall behind.

But the neatest and most attractive stall is that
of the petty curio -dealer, with his little array of
odds and ends, bric-k-brac, old curiosities, objects
of vertu, a string of centuries-old cash, a few
coins two thousand years old, to empty the purse
of the numismatist, vases which make the con-
noisseur’s mouth water, an ancient metal mirror.
When the space will allow, this curio -dealer will

2X8

street Scenes

blossom out into a regular stall -holder, with his
tables laden with good things, and others of no
particular value at all.

In some streets, where family houses present a
plain stone and brick front and only one doorway,
and where the shops are not greedy of the spaces
in frojnt, there is a perfect open-air market of wares
spread out for sale at the sides of the streets —
anything and everything almost to tempt the
passer-by.

Such are a few of the glimpses of Chinese life
that the traveller in the sedan-chair sees as he
passes through the busy streets, crowded with the
pedestrians on business or pleasure bent, while
on either side the depths of the shaded and cool-
looking shops, with their varied wares of all
descriptions, are more or less visible to the rapid
coup (Voeil as one hurries by.

One can enjoy all this in the comparative com-
fort and luxury of a city chair ; but the country
chairs are distinctly uncomfortable. Made of hard
bamboo, with ne’er a cushion, hard though it might
be, to ease the aching bones, one rides for hours
perched up on the level of the almost naked coolies’
shoulders, now leaning forward to relieve oneself
of the fatigue of half -lying back while shaken
along what by the greatest stretch of courtesy
are styled footpaths, the like of which one never
sees in England, except it be sheep -tracks on
mountain heights.

In places the so-called road is better, though
219

How John Chinaman Travels

narrow^ and it may be at times paved with slabs
of granite^ which originally were placed level —
at least one must give that amount of credit to the
makers of the road ; but now in many cases
sloping at different angles and presenting edges
often^ instead of smooth surfaces and joints. To a
certain extent this is even the case inside the cities.
In our own lands, if tired from a walk, it is
generally the length of the way that has fatigued
us. But the wayfarer on a Chinese street or road
finds the unevenness is what tires him, for on a
return from a walk one feels feet and legs wearied
by the constant surprises of level, and the vain
attempts to adapt oneself to such an unusual state
of the constantly unexpected. This irregularity
of the paving proves much more wearing than
the length of the walk ; for at nearly every foot-
fall the steps have to be adapted to the inequalities
of the surface, as well as to the slipperiness in
certain streets leading to the water-side, or from
or to a well, owing to the spillings from the overfull
buckets of the water-carriers.

In the country there is little or no attempt to
carry the road along in a straight course. It winds
and meanders and winds back in a most wearisome
manner ; nor is there any grading attempted ; it
rises and falls abruptly and without any warning,
according to the nature of the ground-surface.
Now it rises on a hank, and now it sinks again to
a lower level. It widens at times, and then narrows
again. In the north, for the vehicular traffic, the

220

The Wheelbarrow

roads have to be broader than in the south, where
there are generally no wheeled vehicles except the
rough quarryman’s wheelbarrow.

In the central coastal regions the wheelbarrow
is a common mode of conveyance, not only for
the passenger, but for bales of goods, which are
piled up on this awkward, clumsy -looking con-
veyance in a most wondrous manner. The old
'rhyme says : —

“The roads were so muddy
And the lanes were so narrow
I took my wife home on a wheelbarrow.'^

But in Shanghai and neighbourhood, as well as in
and around other cities, this curious mode of
transport is largely used by both men and women.

Like almost everything Chinese, however, the
wheelbarrow is entirely different from the English
one, and the name (no other is available) does not
convey an idea of the structure mounted on the
wheel- The men and women are not bundled into
the box-like carrying portion of an English wheel-
barrow, like so many goods, with their leg's dang-
ling over the edges ; for the very good reason that
that portion of the wheelbarrow is entirely wanting
in the Chinese distant cousin to the English wheel-
barrow.

To begin with, the two are alike in having two
shafts or handles and one wheel ; but there the
resemblance ends, and as regards the wheel itself
the similarity is more in name than in reality ;

221 *

How John Chinaman Travels

for the wheel is in the centre of the machine. On
both sides of the wheel is built up a structure
which affords not only a seat on each side for
from two to four persons to sit on, but also a back
to rest against. The whole of this portion of the
wheelbarrow is made of rails or open woodwork,
and besides the projecting seats, it forms a frame-
work over the centre wheel. A cord hangs down
on each side below the seat, for the passengers to
rest their feet on or hitch their heels into, if they
have any, for the Chinese ordinary shoe has but
a rudimentary heel, if any at all.

The wheelbarrow-man has, one would think, a
hard time of it, especially when half a dozen mill-
girls go out for a tide. He holds the handles, and
a strap across the shoulders eases some of the
weight. His vehicle needs careful guiding and
steering and balancing, as it is rather a ticklish
craft, especially when it is piled high with bales
and bundles and packages of goods. He is in an
awkward predicament when one falls off, or nearly
so. The progress is slow with a heavy burden — a
rapid foot-pace— and is all right for the passenger,
except when bumping down two or three steps.
The European, however, after one trial, to be able
to say he has ridden in a wheelbarrow, prefers
the easier and more rapid -ricksha, where the man
runs along with this miniature gig, and rapidly
reaches his destination.

In Shanghai, with its broad roads in the foreign
concessions, the Chinaman copies the foreigner in

222

Railways

his luxurious carriage, more comfortable than any-
thing John Chinarhan has evolved for travel in the
long ages past, and conforms so much to foreign
customs as to take his wives, sons, and daughters
out for a ride with him. The streets are too
narrow yet in most Chinese cities in the central
and southern parts of the Empire for wheeled
traffic.

The railway, though long resisted, has at length
penetrated to the Central Empire, and if one
chooses, one may ride all the way from London
(with the exception of crossing the English
Channel) via Siberia to Peking and Tientsin in
the north of China, or even go on to Plankow, in
the centre of the Empire, and before a great many
years even down to the south, to Canton itself.
From Shanghai one may go to Nanking, one of the
ancient capitals of China. From Canton one may
penetrate by rail in two directions — west, as far
as Sam Shui, some thirty odd miles, or north, on
the slowly being constructed Canton-Hankow Rail-
way, some forty or fifty miles, though every year
will bring a further mileage on this line into use.
Flong Kong and Canton are also now connected
by the iron road.

China finds it a slow process to construct rail-
ways, when she insists on no foreign interference
or foreign capital being subscribed or loaned to
her. A further trouble in the south has been that
the people have been afraid of trusting their money
to Government officials, and the mandarins have

223

How Jolm Chinaman Travels

met this attitude with too dictatorial and over-
bearing a manner in their dealings with the people
in regard to railway matters.

Two of the great drawbacks to travel in China,
however, are the robber and the pirate. The
danger arising from them is at times considerable.
The author has had three friends or acquaintances
killed by Chinese pirates at different times and
places, but, though threatened by them at one time,
he has never actually been attacked. Certain dis-
tricts of the country are infested with them ; at
times other districts will go immune for years
from their depredations. It takes considerably
from the pleasure of travel to know that at any
moment one may be brought face to face with a
murderous crew.

Travel by native houseboat is a most pleasant
though slow mode of proceeding up or down the
rivers. Land journeys entail sleeping in native
inns, which beggar description for filth and
vermin.

224

CHAPTER XVIII

How Joliii Chinaman Dresses

I MAGINE a people going about in pyjamas (and
badju) the whole day long, and one will get
some idea of the common costume of the male
section of the nation; for a loose, baggy pair of
trousers and a loose-fitting jacket form the basis
of Chinese costume for both men, women, boys,
and girls. The hot climate makes everything
tight-fitting an abomination, except when the long,
hot, weary months give place to the cool, refreshing
winter. Then what are called collars appear — i.e,,
something in the way of a band to fasten round
the neck, primarily to keep it warm, made of satin
or fur. The official collar is a stiff satin one.

But to go back to jacket and trousers. They
are even wanting altogether at limes in the case
of labourers, when a man will appear in a costume,
or rather no costume, which in our land of prudery
would land him in the hands of the police in no
time; for occasionally a man hard at work pound-
ing rice or carrying it through the streets will be

225

How John Chinaman Dresses

seen with nothing but a loin-cloth on. It is a
common thing in hot weather— in fact, most
common — to see John Chinaman with nothing on
but his trousers, and these, if he is busy at work,
will be rolled up as far as they will go. Short
trousers are even made that scarce reach to the
knees. The shopkeeper, especially after his meal,
will often be seen sitting at his counter in this airy
costume, or want of costume. In fact, it is the
Chinese equivalent of “ shirt-sleeves,” but the shirt
itself, or even anything below it, is wanting; and
this, from the heat of the climate, is even more
often resorted to than the throwing off of a coat
in our lands.

There is no indecency in all this want of dress,
or with it; for the Chinese are a modest people,
and in the south, even on the hottest summer’s day,
no woman would appear in such attire or want
of attire. In the north, where the heat is more
excessive for a short period than it is in the south,
the women when inside the courtyards of their
houses do imitate this state of undress, to the extent
of throwing their jackets open or off. Children,
especially in country districts, may be seen toddling
about with absolutely nothing on; but after a few
years of this freedom from the trammels of dress,
they have to conform to a semblance of modesty,
and appear properly clothed, according to the
Oriental idea of propriety. In the case of the girls
quite enough is put on to satisfy even the Occi-
dental in his idea of what is right and fit.

226

Jackets

All sorts of changes are rung upon the founda-
tion idea of these primitive upper and nether
garments, and in the case of the humble classes of
society a multiplicity of these garments is piled
on, or peeled off, layer after layer, as the exigencies
of the weather demand. Half a dozen jackets of
one sort or another, and several pairs of trousers
may be used to keep out the cold of winter. A
long gabardine or robe is the frock-coat of the
mass of the people, and so common is blue its
colour, especially in summer, that a book has been
written with the by no means inappropriate title
of The Land of the Bine Gownj Often noth-
ing is worn over this ; but a jacket, when the
weather requires it, or, in the case of well-to-do,
well-dressed people, a Chinese waistcoat may be
seen over it. In accordance with the Chinese
general rule of everything being done in an
opposite way to our own, the waistcoat is an upper
garment.

But to return again to the jacket. It generally
buttons round under the shoulder or arm, as does
the long gown mentioned above, thus giving a
lapel, which does not, however, fold back. But
there are jackets and jackets. Some are close-
fitting, and one variety of these has buttons all
the way down the front wiorthy of an English
“ buttons,” though Chinese buttons, as a rule, are
more modest than in the West. They are often of
small cord, knotted into a conventional shape.

* By Mrs. Archibald Little.

227

How Jolm Chinaman Dresses

Round brass ones are also common, and different
ornamental styles are used, the boat-girls delight-
ing in half-dollars or ten -cent pieces.

Double jackets—/.^., jackets lined or padded
with cotton-wool — serve to keep John Chinaman
warm in the wintry blasts, fresh from the ice and
snow fields of Siberia and Manchuria, when he
cannot afford furs. Of these, if his purse allows
him, he has a good variety, and some of them
cheap. Unyeaned lambs’ wool is a favourite ;
foxes’ fur and other furs give him a variety of
choice and price.

Once more we hark back to the jackets. It
is not every one that wears a waistcoat, but it
looks as if the original John Chinaman who de-
veloped the idea took his jacket, cut off the sleeves
well out from the body of the jacket, leaving
gaping armholes, shortened it, and tightened it
round his body (though it is still loose enough in
its fit), and then had the original type from which
the future waistcoats were developed. A sleeve-
less, waistcoat- like jacket is sometimes worn, with
nothing else on the body. It occasionally buttons
down the front, as some of the jackets do. The
woman’s jacket is longer than the man’s, and
buttons under the shoulder and arm.

As to the trousers, they flap about loose, looser
than our Jack Tars’ round the ankle, and looser
than any self-respecting Briton would wear his
fearfully and wonderfully made pyjamas of jail
colours of the rainbow. This frivolity of taste

228

Colour in Dress

would shock sober John Chinaman^ who has his
own judgment of good taste and his own gamut
of colours to choose from. He is not a savage,
to be tickled by gaudy tints, though he brings
blue and green, in imitation of Nature, into juxta-
position in his paintings and in his dress often
enough to shock our preconceived notions of the
harmonious blending or contrast of colours.

Many an English manufacturer in the past has
thought gaudy cottons and ginghams, which would
set an African savage wild with joy, were the
very things to touch a grave Chinaman’s heart
with delight; instead of which they are received
with disgust. A parallel mistake was made by a
foreign firm who sent out goloshes to China with
the names of the makers or importers stamped in
Chinese characters on the soles. No Chinese will
throw anything with writing on to the ground or
street, where it would be trodden underfoot. The
printed or written word is looked upon as almost
sacrosanct.

But as to colour in dress, it must be said that
tastes differ in different parts of China). White,
being mourning, is only for underwear in the south
of China, except in the case of amahs (nurses) for
foreign children, when, in deference to the wishes
of their English, German, or American mistresses,
they put on white jackets, to keep the children’s
clothing from being dyed blue with the garments
they would otherwise wear, A man may occa-
sionally be seen with a white jacket on; but he

229 Q

How John Chinaman Dresses

is not properly dressed. An exception must be
made to this broad statement, for a white grass-
cloth long robe is quite en regie for a teacher or
other gentleman, and white sheepskin furs are
worn. Thus it would appear tha,t material makes
all the difference. Blue is to a large extent a
predominant colour; but as Nature is profuse in
her scheme of colours in the gorgeous East, so
man vies with her in her profusion and brilliancy
of hues, and with prodigal hand he dresses himself
in glorious tints.

In England men have given up the con-
test with women as to who shall deck them-
selves the more profusely in the colours of the
rainbow, and retired ' in favour of the fairer sex,
content that they should have the monopoly of
adornment. In the Far East man still retains
the supremacy, though woman runs him close in
this respect. The long robes of gentlemen are of
many colours — ^not that a Joseph’s coat of many
colours is worn by men, though children often
wear a patchwork jacket which reminds one of
that Scripture character. Each garment is gener-
ally a monotone with men. The robe will be
of one of the many shades of purple, or of blue,
or of pure white ; while brown and many other
shades also appear in the wardrobe of a Chinese
gentleman. His jacket over his robe will be of
some other colour ; so that the sight of a
crowd of well-dressed Chinese is a feast for
the eyes .

230

splendour and Poverty

The magnificence of a mandarin’s apparel is
a sight to behold^ glistening in the richest colours
as regards his robes, and his insignia emblazoned
thereon, embroidered in gold and the softest floss
silks, while his limpet-shaped hat crowned with
his button of precious stone is ornamented with
his single or double-eyed peacock feather, and
the red cords hanging over his hat from the apex.
As a set-off to all this gleaming glory are seen the
severe hues of his black satin collar and official
black satin boots with white felt soles. Round
his neck hangs a costly string of beads, originally
derived from the Buddhist rosary.

Among the labouring classes, in addition to the
prevalent blue, a rusty brown is much esteemed.
With all the brilliancy of colouring, the exigencies
of restricted means and economy cause many a
shabby attire to be seen. The queue, hanging
down the jacket or gown of the man, gives a
greasy, broad mark down the back of the garment,
and the Chinaman is not always particular as to
the perfect cleanliness of the silk and satin gar-
ments he wears. The ordinary labouring man in
China does not perhaps look so dirty as the
Englishman in a similar state often does (though
there is sometimes not much to choose between
them), partly due to there being less to get dirty
and nasty, except in winter. The ordinary China-
man is not so careful of the cleanly look of Ms
clothes as many among us are; but the common
garments are often washed. Many Chinese appear

^ 3 ^

How John Chinaman Dresses

less to appreciate the advantages of a good wash^
even in what is considered superior society^ though
others are as clean as one could wish; but purse
and climate are rather against it.

There are clean Chinese^ as clean and sweet
as any man. But the Chinese beggar is caked
with dirt and crawling with vermin. Indeed,
vermin are often looked upon as a necessary evil,
a condition of things which cannot be avoided. A
Chinese preacher enunciated the opinion that these
parasites on the Chinese body were sent or per-
mitted by Providence as a trial for patience, so
that virtue might have her perfect work. A not
uncommon sight in the streets is to see two Chinese
coolies (or other Chinese of that class) engaged
in the interesting pursuit of these preyers on human
kind. Garments are produced by the lower classes
in the open air, and, evidently with no sense of
shame, are given a careful scrutiny along the seams
and other likely hiding-places to discover the
hidden haunts of the tormentors. Bed-boards are
also brought out into the street and thumped end-
wise on the pavement, to dislodge those which hide
in the cracks during the day and plague man
during the night.

When a Chinese puts on his long robe, his
trousers are generally tucked in at his ankles, and
he often pulls over them what for want of a better
term must be called leggings. These reach up to
his thighs, and are held up by tapes ; tapes again
are used to tie them at the ankles, where they

232

Washing-days

narrow 'down. They are made of the sam'e
materials as the other articles of dress.

A wide-sleeved jacket, made of rich satin or
fnr, is often put on over the long robe by those
who can afford it. It is thus that the yellow
jacket/’ bestowed by the Emperor, is worn. It
is the equivalent of an order conferred by our
Western sovereigns.

Saint Monday is not kept in China, either to
resort to the public-house — such establishments are
not known in China — ^nor is it kept sacred to the
washtub by the female members of the community.
There are no wash-houses, no laundries, in China.
Every man his own washerman might not be an
inappropriate motto for the Chinaman. Given a
dirty jacket or pair of trousers, a wash-basin or
tub (soap was immaterial, but is now in general
use, and even made in China), and the needful
water, and in a few minutes, after much sousing
and rinsing, out comes a clean garment, a long
bamboo pole stretched from roof to roof or propped
up by two bamboo crutches, and the sun does the
rest. If necessary, the garment is starched, but
ironing is unknown except by the tailor, who has
been using the principle of the American charcoal
iron for centuries, probably before the cute Yankee
discovered it in the West and patented it.
Mangling is also unknown. A garment or a pair
of socks will be washed as need requires. There
are no soiled-linen bags, or dirty-clothes baskets
to accumulate a week’s washing. Of course among

233

How John Chinaman Dresses

the rich their slave-girls or servant-women are
the laundresses.

In China the men have taken to the stocking,
the women to the sock, and the ladies, with their
bound feet, to neither the one nor the other; they
bandage their deformities. The servant- woman
often wears blue stockings. The “ blue-stocking
in another sense of the term is almost unknown,
though there are instances of her in history.

The native footwear next the foot is made of
cotton cloth sewn together ; outside are the slippers,
rather than shoes, of cloth, with felt soles. There
is, however, a considerable variety in shoes for
men and women, and fashions change and vary.
There are many naked feet to be seen; in fact,
the labouring classes ,go barefooted to a large
extent, some of them never putting on a pair of
shoes except on New Year’s Day'^or their wedding
day. When John Chinaman wears a pair of shoes,
he delights to go slipshod, with the backs of the
shoes folded down under his heels, and so to clatter
along the street or through the house. Sandals are
largely in use by the labourers ; especially are
they worn by the coolies. They are made of
straw, and sometimes consist only of a thin sole of
leather fastened to the foot.

The trousers of the men are sometimes tucked
into the long stockings at the knees, and thus
John Chinaman is often seen in knickerbockers.
A long tape garter, blue or black, or of ornamented
braid, worn below the knee, keeps the stockings

234

THREE WELL-DRESSED LADIES AND SERVANT.

Women’s Raiment

from slipping down. The women do not wear
garters. Of late years foreign cotton socks are
worn by some, as well as singlets or vests, as they
are called nowadays in England.

It behoves a mere man to approach the mysteries
of woman’s dress with awe; but let it be said
that the primary idea of the costume of woman in
China is the same as man’s. In fact, women
wear the breeches; so the English dictionary’s
definition of those articles of apparel as “a
garment worn by men ” is not applicable to the
Far East. The higher classes of society disguise
the fact when “ dressed,” by wearing flaps of richly
embroidered silk or satin in plaits over their lower
limbs in front and behind, which serve for petti-
coats. There is, however, no hiding the fact that
all the women in China wear breeches, in the
literal sense of the term, and some figuratively as
well.

The women’s coats are longer than the men’s,
reaching well down towards the knees. A few
retain the high-soled shoe of fifty years ago; and
some the Manchu shoe, with heel misplaced into
the centre of the sole. The fashion of late has
been to use the Shanghai shoe, which has a thin
sole, and is more like a slipper, and must be
far more comfortable to walk in than the high,
perched-up affairs of former days. The women
walk much more naturally with the new fashion
than with the old, which constrained the free action
of the foot and made their gait stiff and awkward.

235

How John Chinaman Dresses

The cities of Shanghai and Soochow are the
Paris and Bond Street or Regent Street as regards
fashions, which do change even in conservative
old China, as she has been in the past. A
few years ago the fashionable girls and ladies
were suddenly transformed almost into pigmies.
Fashion decreed that jackets should fit tight,
though not yielding to the contours of the figure,
except in the slightest degree, as such an exposure
of the body would be considered immodest. These
jackets were also made very short. This style of
dress did not last very long — a year or two, or a
few years at the most. There is on the whole not
so much scope for innovation or variety.

The poorer classes are more out of the fashion-
able world than with us, and with women the
old style of doing the hair is seen sometimes
amongst the working classes. The old fashion
made obligatory a wonderful structure, formed into
the shape of a teapot-handle at the back, and
spreading out into two wings at the side of the
head, which were kept extended by the plentiful
application of a kind of gum. Two back wings
also added to the curious erection. The present
mode of doing the hair is much neater, and the
shape of the head is shown, while the hair is
gathered together behind. The hair is drawn off
the forehead very tightly, and bound usually at
the back, with the result that many young women
even become bald on the forehead and temples.
To hide this a little frontlet of hair is bound over

236

Absolute Necessities

the bared part above the forehead, and sometimes
black powder added.

Women wear no collars, though there seems a
tendency amongst some brought under foreign
influence to, put on a narrow piece of crochet or
similar work on the neck of their jackets. The
women often wear a band over the forehead in
winter, to keep off the cold. No muffs are used;
but the men have such long sleeves to their coats
and robes that in cold weather they can clasp their
hands together and have them covered and warm.
There is no need for the removal of ladies’ hats
in a Chinese theatre, for the simple reason that
there are none to take off. Except the working
women, who wear them to protect themselves from
sun and rain, and these are coarse bamboo affairs,
no hats are worn by the female sex. For protec-
tion from the elements, several kinds of bamboo
hats are used by the men, one variety of which
even eclipses the picture hat in size. Soft felt
hats are also worn by the lower classes of men,
and all grades wear close-fitting skull-caps. In
summer these are largely discarded, but a man
is not properly dressed without this cap, and must
hurry to put one on when receiving a’ formal
call.

No woman is considered properly dressed with-
out ear-rings. The variety of these in different parts
of the country is wonderful. A very common kind
is a large gilt or gold ring an inch or so in
diameter, to which is suspended a fliat ring of jade-

237

How John Chinaman Dresses

Stone. A press of jade is often worn to hold the
back hair^, if the style of coiffure is such as to
require it. Every woman has a long hairpin^ or
two at least, of copper or silver, and, if she can
afford it, of gold, with a part of it of jade. These
stick out of the hair as ornaments.

238

CHAPTER XIX

The Care of the Minute

T he legal maxim' De minimis non curat lex
■would appear generally to regulate English
life and action, and the usual Englishman appears
to ;rule his life by, to put it in nautical terms,
a principle of “ by and large.” So far does he
carry this that his smallest coin — the farthing —
is almost a negligible quantity in the handling,
except in the draper’s shop.

The English proverb says, “ Take care of the
pence, and the pounds will take care of them-
selves,” and utterly ignores the insignificant
farthing. In Chinese currency the smallest and
almost' only coin is the cash, which at the present
rate of exchange is worth the enormous amount
of one-tenth of an English farthing, though its
purchasing power in the interior of China is about
what a penny is in England. It is a small round
coin about the size of a halfpenny, with a square
hole in the centre. This type of coin has been
in existence for two thousand years, or even more.
Its square hole serves as a text for a sermon
on the motto, “Act on the square.” Its round

239

The Care of the Minute

shape might be emblematical of the ease with
which money rolls away out of one’s control. To
prevent this happening, or rather really for con-
venience in carrying and handling, this coin is
tied up with dried grass-like strings or hempen
cords, by means of its centre hole, into hundreds,
and the hundreds into thousands. When there
is a string of coin to throw over one’s shoulders
when travelling, probably heavy as they are, they
are less burdensome than the weighty iron coins
of Lycurgus, in ancient Greece.

A sweetmeat or a pickle can delight a child’s
heart for a cash. A hundred, a few score years
ago, would have served (at the rate of exchange
then prevailing, of twenty to the penny) for the
support of a labouring man for one day, nor
in the interior is their sustaining power much
lessened. The world-wide rising in prices has
its echo even in the Far East, and living costs
more than it used to do, which is all the more
reason for John Chinaman’s frugal care for the
minute. There is no such thing as the uitcon-
sidered trifle in China ; nothing is wasted, except
time ; nothing is of no account, unless, perhaps,
it be human life.

Every Chinaman seems born with the instinct of
acquisitiveness. Where an Englishman would
starve, the Chinaman will make a competence, for
he is able to turn all advantages to the best
account. Added to which, he is frugal in the use
of the little he possesses or can obtain. He has

240

Small Savings

an exact conception of the value of things.
Nothing of the slightest use is thrown away, and
this definition covers almost everything. Even,
according to popular fancy and story, the gods
are supposed to see that no waste takes place.
As an instance of this is the story of the God
of Thunder. He was rumbling along in his chariot
in a storm, a half -monster of the skies, with claws
of a fowl and the beak of a chicken, and in the
semi-gloom and darkness of a Chinese kitchen,
where soot and smoke paint the walls and roof
black, he espied a young woman who had, as he
thought, thrown away some rice — cooked rice — and
thus wasted an article of food. He struck her
dead with his hammer and chisel, to discover
too late that what he thought was rice was the
white rind of a melon.

To prevent the repetition of such a sad and
fatal mistake the Goddess of Lightning was
appointed to go with the god on his punitive
expeditions, whose duty it would be to flash light
from two mirrors she held in her hands, and thus
illuminate the dark places of the earth before the
indignant god should strike.

The child is warned against the waste of leaving
even a few grains of rice in his bowl after his
simple breakfast .and dinner by a frightful story
that for every grain thus left a smallpox mark
will appear on his face.

Every scrap of iron is saved and hoarded up,
or turned into cash when next the itinerant marine -

241

The Care of the Minute

hawker comes round with his two baskets to gather
the spoils which would be thrown upon the dust-
heap in our lands of the West. Shiploads of old
horseshoes and scrap-iron are sent out to China,
where ere long they I'eappear in useful kitchen
knives or tools and nails for the carpenter.

Every Chinese boy is a successful merchant in
embryo. A Samuel Budgett would be no wonder
in this land of frugality and picking up of scraps,
as every Chinaman in humble circumstances would
act as that worthy merchant did about the horse-
shoe, and further, would probably give Samuel
Budgett lessons to surprise him.

What would be insignificant trifles in the West
are worth money in China. Things that are cast
out on the rubbish-heap with us are hoarded up
or turned into ready cash — such, for example, as
old tins, whose day seems past when all the jam
is gone and the sardines they held eaten. Every
tin of a similar nature, if not immediately utilised
as a drinking -cup or box to hold something, finds
its way to the tinsmith’s shop. Old kerosene tins
begin life anew as boxes and trunks : one makes
a handy small one, two a fairly good-sized one,
while four would make a magnificent trunk.
When travelling in the country you can scarcely
please a Chinaman better than by giving him all
the old tins, cans, bottles, and pots which have
contained your preserved fruits and provisions.
His eyes glisten and his face beams on the receipt
of the treasures.

242

The Hawker’s Spoils

The marine-hawkers perambulate the streets
with two large baskets^ slung to a pole over their
shoulders. Scarcely anything comes amiss to
them ; bits of copper^ iron, tin, or other metal,
old shoes, and most of the things we would think
worthless find a rest in their baskets in exchange
for a few cash. One American pat ent -medicine -
seller offers a cent for every old bottle issued
originally from his firm, if returned to him empty.
Without any such notice on the empties, every
empty bottle is of value in China, and after passing
through the marine -hawkers’ baskets may be seen
in rows on some street stall, where after the in-
finitesimal gain made by the gatherer of them,
another small profit will result to the retailer.

No old bottles are seen lying about the shore
or on the roadside ; they are too valuable to
be tossed aside like that. The spirit merchant,
or whoever supplies his goods in such things, has
no need to have them specially made for him,
though many are made in China— especially is this
the case with the tiny phials holding essences,
such as peppermint, largely used medicinally.

After you have drunk your tea, your servant,
besides having his cup, will often resell the used
leaves. Fresh tea is made from them on some
poor man’s table, and they thus serve to cheer
another family by being re-infused, and this though
tea is cheap enough in the Land of Tea.

The ashes from the opium -pipe are re -smoked
by others ; but this drug is an expensive article,

243

The Care of the Minute

Clothes pass down from one to the other, till at
last they reach the beggar, at times a mass of
rags scarcely held together. In the first stage of
their descent from their high estate, and while
still jvery respectable, you may see them lining
the walls of the old clothes shops as they are
styled, but “ ancient ” is often a more fitting term
to apply to them than “ old.”

Poverty incites to this care for the minute. So
the children, little tiny toddlers often, supplement
the efforts of the father and mother to get rice
for the hungry mouths, by foraging about for
every twig and shaving that can be found to keep
the pot boiling. The seamstress-mother stumps
along on her bound feet, carrying in her basket,
now that the day’s work is over, scraps for mend-
ing and patching for the men whose wives, in
accordance with Chinese custom, are living at home
in the country with the mothers -in -law. Her
footsteps are slow, prevented as she is by her
cramped feet from pacing it out bravely, and she
is burdened with the baby carried pick-a-back,
while a little brood in varying stages of child-
hood run along beside her, gathering up some
morsel of wood or bit of combustible matter.

Every floating stick or piece of wood is picked
up carefully by the boat -women as they row their
sampans along, or as they drift on the tide past
them. A shallow, tiny saucer-like basket attached
to a short bamboo pole is ready amongst the boat
furniture, handy to retrieve this flotsam and rescue

244

Near Starvation

any stray chip which in England would not be
thought worth the trouble of rescuing: from the
water, much less of stopping the plying of an oar,
as the boat-women will do at times, to recover
them from the stream. One may sometimes see a
boat coming along under sail, the sails made of
old flour-bags sewn together.

It is only by the strictest economy und the utili-
sation of every advantage that comes in their way
that the great mass of the Chinese people can
manage to make both ends meet. Millions of
them live just above starvation point. Under such
circumstances there is the incentive to a husband-
ing of every resource, to a seizure of every oppor-
tunity that presents itself to save money or to
obtain what prevents the expenditure of money.
And yet withal they are, on the whole, a happy,
merry people.

About the only thing in China that seems use-
less is dirt ; and so it is allowed to accumulate
in street and house, in clothes often, and not seldom
on the person. The heaps of rubbish piled up
at street corners or on the country roadside, or on
the banks of rivers, contain nothing of value.
Shreds of pottery, broken tiles, pieces of earthen-
ware, mud, old bits of mortar resolving themselves
into earth, and suchlike apparently present no
potentiality of use, except in reclaiming land on
the river fronts. This is constantly being done
in an inexpensive manner, though rather to
the detriment of some of the watercourses.

245 R

The Care of the Minute

Nature has so lavishly provided John Chinalnan
with these means of intercommunication in the
south that he has not yet awakened to the neces-
sity of conserving their courses and preserving
their banks intact.

Even old cofSn-boards, after the corpse or
skeleton has done with them, are raised from the
dead, or the dead raised from them and provided
for elsewhere. The boards serve as a primitive
bridge (being strong, massive chunks of timber) to
cross a ditch or watercourse. Even a fence or
hoarding made of them has been seen by the author.

Men with large wooden trays, somewhat like
a magnified edition of a butcher’s tray, stand in
the mud of river-banks, sifting out the silt, to
recover any object that may seem to them worth
picking up.

The Chinese would consider our system of
sewerage a dreadful waste. The drains^ &c., are
only for the surface water. The dirty water from
the kitchens is thrown into old buckets, except
a small quantity that goes down the open sinks,
and periodically women come and empty them
into their own pails, which they carry off for pig-
swill. Men and women also collect the night-
soil from the houses in the cities and towns, and
about 9 a.m. many a street is, to the European
passer-by, almost impassable, owing to the frightful
stench rising from the open buckets and the collect-
ing operations, for all is done in the open streets.
The material gathered in this and other ways is

246

The Complete House

carried away and used for manuring the fields^
whicli^ barring the rice-fields, at all events in the
south of China; are to a large extent simply
market -gardens .

The liquid fertilising material is applied diluted
with water to the growing plants. It may be
imagined how unpleasant a walk in the country
in the evening may be under such circumstances ;
for that is the time that the market -gardener or
farmer employs for this combination of watering
and manuring. It may also be imagined with
what success plague, cholera, and other epidemics
spread under such conditions. The Chinese live
through it all, and seem to thrive under what would
kill off Europeans wholesale.

Probably no people on earth live on less than
the Chinese can and often do, unless it be the
natives of the Indian peninsula, though, as soon
as his enhanced income will permit of it, John
Chinaman launches out in his expenditure on food,
clothes, furniture, house-rent, and luxuries.

John Chinaman has pretty well denuded his
country of woods and forests, by his search for
firewood ; and he prevents the young trees growing
again. For the grass-cutters, mostly women and
girls, scour the hills and mountains to gather their
bundles of grass, and all falls before their destruc-
tive knives.

It is wonderful how little one can do with,
if one is brought up to do without. A trestle or
two, perhaps, one or more hard, uncomfortable

247

The Care of the Minute

chairs of wood or bamboo, a bedstead of two
trestles and two long broad boards, a mat for
mattress, a blanket, a quilt, a mosquito-net, a
rough wooden or bamboo table, often a ‘‘ gate ”
table, a few earthenware pots and pans, and two
or three furnaces (each pot or pan has a separate
one), half a dozen bowls and plates, lastly, but
not of least importance, a teapot — and there is a
house fully furnished for a poor family in China.

No ; one side of life has not been provided for.
An idol, or a piece of board or paper with the god’s
or gods’ names written on, will do for worship,
and some charms. Nevertheless, with it all, the
love of Nature is not quite forgotten. There will
likely be a broken flower-pot or two, with some
broken-down plants.

The litter of scraps of paper, old envelopes,
and tom-up letters, with occasionally a whole
newspaper blown about in the streets or over the
sands, or even a page or two of a book with
a,dvertisements galore— all this is a sight never
seen in China. This is not due to tidiness or
cleanliness, as every vacant space in a city or
a street comer has its heaps of rubbish piled high ;
but is owing to the reverence felt and evinced
for the printed or written page. Scarcely any
thing causes the foreigner more to be despised
in China than his utter disregard of such things.

The author when throwing away into a pond
a piece of dirty foreign-printed paper in the
interior of China had his attention solemnly called

248

Reverence for the Characters

to the fact by a young Chinese lad in an awe-
struck tone of voice. No paper with characters on
it is thrown down on the ground or tossed away,
but carefully stuffed into small wooden boxes
aflfijSsd to the walls, or, failing these, into cracks
or crevices in trees and like situations or cavities,
whence they are gathered by men who go about
with a basket and a pair of bamboo tongs for
the express purpose of gathering up every scrap
of printed or written paper. The contents of these
baskets are burned in a temple or public hall.
There is scarcely any need for the rag-picker in
China, though such a gatherer is sometimes seen ;
for there is little or nothing of any value for
him to gather. Dustbins are not required in
houses — ^the street comer or the river front
serves that useful purpose.

Silver in China was not coined till of late years.
With the foreign mercantile intercourse, Spanish,
South American, and Mexican dollars were intro-
duced. They were stamped, as they circulated,
with each merchant’s or shopkeeper’s private mark,
to secure their being genuine, with the result that
after a few score or hundreds of “ chops,” as
they were called, had been impressed on them
the hard -used dollars broke up into pieces. Even
when whole the dollar was weighed, to make
sure it was full weight. The scales for this
purpose, which were finely marked, allowed
seventy-two hundredths of a tael, or some-
times it was seven hundred and seventeen

249

The Care of the Minute

thousandths to the dollar'. One of these seventy-
two hundredths did not amount to a halfpenny ;
but it was worth quite an appreciable number of
cash, and John Chinaman’s care of the minute is
carried to fractions little thought of by us. •

The dollar being thus reduced to fragments
by this continual “ chopping/* became “ broken
silver,” and if the little scale was required
for the whole coins, much more was it necessary
for the bits of silver, to know what they were
worth. In purchases these little fragments and
their weights were haggled over until agreements
could be come to between buyer and seller. The
shopman had his money-scales, and the purchaser
also carried his as well, to check the shopman’s.
With the silver coinage that has now come in,
this state of affairs is gradually disappearing.

There is no need of a Eustace Miles to teach
John Chinaman to live on threepence a day.
Thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, already
do it on less. Refreshments and food of all kinds
are obtainable at a low rate unheard of in England.
Eight Tangerine oranges may be had for a penny ;
others cost about double that ; a stick of sugar-
cane about eight or ten inches long costs less
than a farthing ; several little cakes may be bought
for the equivalent of a farthing, and the satne
low scale of prices governs many of the articles
of native consumption.

As to the care for the minute in labour, a
yolume might be written on it, and on the un-

250

Waste Not, Want Not

ceasing patience which John Chinaman will bestow
on his work. The amount of labour devoted to
some minute treasure of porcelain decoration is
little short of fabulous. Matthew Arnold’s picture
of the “ cunning workman/’ who

''Pricks with vermilion some porcelain vase,

An emperor’s gift — at early morn he paints,

And all day long, and when night comes the lamp
Lights up his studious forehead and thin hands,”

could probably be seen scores of times in the
humbler quarters of great cities in China. He
will devote days, weeks, months to the intiicate
minutiae of some piece .of carving, nor think his
time wasted.

From all the foregoing it will be seen that if
there is any country where the adage, “ Waste
not, want not,” is believed in and acted up to
by the people, it is China, where it is practised
to its fullest extent. As a nation, the Chinese
present to us an example of frugality and a
habitual readiness to labour which scorns no
drudgery or pains.

^251

CHAPTER XX

The Yellow Peril

'' Peace is to be prized/* — ^The Chinese Classics.

^'Who can unite the Empire under one sway? He who has no
pleasure in killing men can so unite it/’ — ^The Chinese Classics.

W ITH no uncertain voice does the sage
Mencius denounce war. That “ lust of
conquest will not prosper ” ; that “ war hinders
the increase of population ” ; that “ a war of
conquest is really manslaughter ’’ ; that “ it
destroys the balance of power between states ;
that “ annexation should only be when the inhabit-
ants are favourable ” ; that “ even a war of punish-
ment may be avoided ” ; that “ war is generally
to be deprecated ” ; that “ there are no righteous
wars. Instances there are of one war better than
another ” — these are the principles to be deduced
from the Book of Mencius. i Mencius “ always
advocates a policy of peace. In this respect he

^ See Faber’s Mind of Mencius^ by Hutchinson, Triibner’s
“ Oriental ” Series, pp. 268-72.

252

War Discountenanced

is at one with all the chief state philosophers of
the Chinese.”

Lao Tsz says : “ Wherever a host is stationed,
briers and thorns spring! up. In the sequence of
great armies there are sure to be bad years.”
This caveat against war ” goes on to say : “A
[skilful] commander strikes a decisive blow, and
stops. He does not dare (by continuing his opera-
tions) to assert and complete his mastery.” “ He
strikes it as a matter of necessity ; he strikes it,
but not from a wish for mastery.” The “ Tap
Teh King ” proceeds : “ Now arms, however

beautiful, are instruments of evil omen, hateful,
it may be said, to all creatures.” “ He who has
killed multitudes of men should weep for thetn'
with the bitterest grief.”

Thus the founder of Taoism made by his
writings a dead set against war. He considered
it productive of misery and leading early to ruin^
as “ only permissible in a case of necessity, and
even then its spirit and tendencies must be
guarded against.” *

To these masters of thought and leaders of the
people’s minds may be added others. Sufifice it
to call attention to Li Hua’s eloquent description
of an old battlefield where “ the poison breath of
war ” blasted man and beast.^

* See Legge’s The Sacred Books of China : The Texts of Taoism
in “The Sacted Books of the East” Series. The Clarendon
Press, Oxford.

* See Giles's Gems of Chinese Literature, pp. 152-5.

^53

The Yellow Peril

Thus we have sage and philosopher, scholar and
people, all with an underlying repugnance to war.
Let us hear what Wjt TsU (the author of one
of the oldest military treatises in the world) has
to say on its subject-matter, as regards the natuie
and reasons for the use of the sword :

“ The natures of war are five : First, a
righteous war ; second, a war of might ; third, a
war of revenge ; fourth, a war of tyranny ; fifth,
an unrighteous war. The prevention of tyraimy
and the restoration of order is just ; to strike
in reliance on numbers is oppression ; to raise
the standard for reasons of anger is a war of
revenge ; to quit propriety and seize advantage is
tyranny.”

“ The barbarous prestige conceded to military
conquerors ” forms no part of the Chinese visions
of the future. If any country has lived up to the
idea of the pen being mightier than the sword,
China has been that country. She is now being
caught in the vortex, ever widening in its destruc-
tive energies, into which the most civilised nations
of modern times cast their hard-earned wealth and
peace of mind, while striving to ride unharmed
over its whirlpool depths.

The idea that China will rouse herself in her
hundreds of millions to overrun the Far West
is a fevered dream, a chimera of the brain ; it
forms a grand plot for the most sensational type
of novel. Some of her emperors in the past, it is
true, have dreamed dreams, and sent out armies

254

No Lust of Conquest

to conquer the Isles of the Seas, to wit, the Island
Kingdom' of Japan ; but their fate was that of
the Arlmada against our own shores, and they
disappeared.

The whole instinct of the people, their whole
mode of thought, the trend of public opinion would
all doubtless be against the transformation of the
nation as a mass into a vast military force,
leaving their homes to go out conquering and
to conquer ; but one or two of those in power
are succumbing to the ideas of conscription in
the future.

It is not that Chinese brains are not capable
of the formation of plans of warfare. In addition
to their, own native intelligence, the study of
Western methods of warfare, superadded to their
own skill in the past, would be sufficient for the
exigencies of the moment, and adequate to the
needs of the future. Their adaptation to circum-
stances is remarkable. What looks like a most
primitive procedure in the war in the Western
hinterland of China was a most wise procedure ;
for the Chinese rule of warfare, that the enemy
should provide the commissariat, was carried to
such an extent that the Chinese army rested from
its arms, and, for the nonce, the swords of the
soldiers were exchanged for ploughshares and their
spears into pruning -hooks.

When the crops which they had sown had
ripened, and food for the campaign for the ensuing
season was provided, the general, Caesar -like,

255

Tlie Yellow Peril

resumed operations ; and thus the barbarians
of the West were reduced, and the horrors
of war interspersed with the delights of farm-
ing, And the wise commander proceeded to
gather the fruits of the ground for future
exigencies till another period of intercalary farm-
ing arrived.

Such a method, with its leisurely procedure,
would hardly meet the exigencies of modern war-
fare ; for a wave of the Yellow Peril to engulf
Europe with its hordes would require a gigantic
food supply to meet its prodigious appetite

Again, were such an insane vision as the invasion
of Europe ever to turn the heads of the sober-
minded Chinese, would not the nations of the West
sink their minor differences, and oppose an
irresistible phalanx to such a devastating host?
Because Japan brought Russia to her knees — the
best of Asia, as far as military prowess is con-
cerned, against the worst of Europe in regard to
martial preparedness— it does not follow that
either Japan or any other Asiatic nation could
conquer the whole of Europe, or, for that matter,
the entire world.

It is a mystery how the vast preparations for
such an impossible undertaking could be kept quiet
in the present day, when every event is known,
to use an Irishism^ even before it takes place,
and the omniscient and omnipresent newspaper
correspondent ferrets out every item' of news for
the ubiquitous daily paper.

356

In Favour of Peace

To ensure the success of such a vast under-
taking, one master-brain would have to dominate
the myriads of thinking, peace-loving Chinese, and
turn them from! rational human beings to wild
beasts of the desert.

Could one imagine such a; tyrant ready to bend
the whole will of the nation to his behests, the
preparations required for such a gigantic conquest
would be immense. The resources of the nation
would be required for generations to come to bte
husbanded for the direful moment. All her latent
powers must be developed to their utmost extent ;
her new-found knowledge adapted to the genius
of her people ; their minds moulded and diverted
into new channels of thought and desires ; the
conservatism of past millenniums turned, not into
the learning of the West, but into a blatant greed
and lust of bloodshed ; the whole nature of John
Chinaman radically changed, from) that of a
civilised being into that of a wild savage, breathing
destruction to all mankind but his own kith and
kin.

Added to this, remembering the constant and
rapid change of armaments, munitions of war,
and all that pertains to warfare, both on land
and sea, which renders in a few years every weapon
obsolete, where are the millions of money, the
hundreds of millions of taels of silver, to come
from, to provide the equipments of war on such
a scale? China is passing rich, without a shadow
of doubt ; but until some financier shall arise with

257

The Yellow Peril

a multi-millionaire’s powers of amassing her
wealth, of storing up her ingots of sycee, or a
genius is born for the occasion, and inherits the
purse of Fortunatus, it is a mystery where the
wherewithal would come from.

China is already following the example of the
West, by borrowing from' her, for her railways,
&c. Would she continue to borrow from her victim
to destroy her, and would her victim provide her
in this way with the sinews of war?

Again, many a line of railway would be required
to pour forces such as would be required for this
Armageddon, which our prophets of woe.
Cassandra-like, are foretelling ; fleets of trans-
ports, men -of -war, fighting ships of all kinds and
classes, the like of which the world has never seen
in ancient or modern times.

Is it possible, then, that the grafting of Western
militarism on the rooted hatred of war of the
Chinese will so alter the whole fibre of the Chinese
moral nature that rapine and bloodshed, conquest
and the lust of rule, destruction and the wholesale
murder of millions of defenceless women and
children, the annihilation of nations, the changing
of the gardens of the world into deserts of blight
and devastation will result? Is it possible that the
good tree of Chinese life will bring forth such
evil and corrupt fruit? God forbid 1 To do this,
the whole nation must be transformed into demons,
a savage people must take the place of a civilised
nation. If this is to be the result of the introduc-

258

The Golden Rule

tion of otir boasted Western civilisation^ then let
it perish off the face of the earth !

But those who know the Chinese will give an
emphatic “no” to the whole question.

Is it to be supposed that the knitting together
of the nations in the bonds of friendship and amity
will not extend beyond the bounds of Europe^
where it has begun, fostered by the wise counsels
of our late King? Is it to be supposed that this
entente cordiale, that this brotherhood of nations,
will not extend and its influence be felt till even
distant China and flts teeming millions will be
brought into the bond of peace? Who would have
thought a few years ago that an alliance would
have been formed between Japan and England?
We believe that eventually the golden rule of
nations as well as of individuals will be, “ Love
thy neighbour as thyself.” The West expresses
the Golden Rule positively ; the East negatively
— “ What you do not like done to yourself, do
not do to others.” Three times, in slightly varying
terms, is this expressed in the Chinese classics.
If anything, the West in this shows a more
excellent way to the East. Will the East, already
having the idea, pervert this glorious teaching to
the destruction of light and learning — the East
which has been the origin of light— Oriente
lux—znd its depository during the dark ages of
Europe?

The Spirit of the Age— the Zeitgeist — is that of
unity and accord ; the world is being drawn

^59

The Yellow Peril

together, and under its influence will not the noble
precepts of the Chinese sages, long lying latent
in their classics, and saturating the native mind,
find a wider field of operation in the extending
sphere of life which is opening up before the
Chinese, touched as they are now being with the
peace-giving spirit of Him who said, “ My peace
I give unto you ” ?

In many parts of the world John Chinamap,
instead of being a yellow peril, has been a golden
blessing. The British Empire in the Straits Settle-
ments is being built up by his persistent, persever-
ing efforts. Out of almost the depths of the
ocean, like the coral insect, he has raised up a
solid foundation of commerce, industry, and pro-
gress. To change the illustration, he is the busy
bee who takes the place of the drone. The native
will not work as John Chinaman will. His progres-
sive, pushing energy transforms the drowsy, sleepy
jungle into the thriving British colony and the
enterprising city.

John Chinaman has developed the Malay
Peninsula by his ever-increasing crowds of pushing,
industrious, enterprising, diligent toilers . Large
numbers of Chinese are found in South America,
the West Indies, and in India itself, and almost
anywhere you go, even on the top of a London
’bus, you will find John Chinaman. There is
scarcely a nation on earth that has not at least
one of his number within its boundaries. He
is almost as ubiquitous as the proverbial Scot,

260

John as a Scot

of whose habits of frugality and patience he is
an Asiatic edition, and, like the Scot, he reaps
his reward. Like the Scot again, he also gets
far; more than his share of opprobrium for the
very qualities which ensure his success.

CHAPTER XXI

John Chinaman at School

T he education of the Chinese has had every-
thing to do with their apparent mentally
stagnant position for centuries. Having elaborated
a system that admitted of no expansive energy for
generations, every Chinese scholar was but a
stereotyped edition of previous issues of the race,
with little scope for individuality of expression.
If one broke loose from the trammels which bound
his fellows, he was a heretic ; for all were schooled
to one line of thought and to one mode of expres-
sion. The almost exclusive cultivation of the
memory, with the confining of the expression of
thought into rigid lines of conventionality, based
on the classics and the scholastic writings on them,
has tended to destroy the power of thought.

While thus affording an excellent training for
the retention of what has been once learned, the
course of education was not of great utility jn
expanding the mind. The result was that there

262

The Old System

was a certain variety within narrow limits in the
intellectual attitude and mental output. The objec-
tive in opposition to the subjective held sway.
Compared with the vast range of subjects which
nowadays find entrance into our curriculum of
study, the Chinese course has been decidedly
limited.

The immortal classics filled the mind’s eye of
the Chinese scholar ; his purview extended no
further. Fortunately, the few books which formed
the text of Chinese learning, which other future
works amplified, had applied to everyday life, as
a sermon does the original motto on which it' is
founded— fortunately, we say, these books embraced
one book of history and one of poetry, as well as
one on etiquette ; so that the study of their
country’s past and the cultivation of the muse
entered into the higher school and college course.
Arithmetic, though hinted at in the first book put
into a Chinese boy’s hand, was beneath the notice
of the ordinary Chinese student. A few treatises
on it and some of the higher branches of mathe-
matics I are to be found in the vast storehouses
of Chinese literature. The scholar, deeply versed
in the lore of the schools, as well as the merchant
in his counting-house, and the clerk at his desk,
are perforce content to use for assistance in the
simplest calculations the abacus, or counting-board,

■ Those who are interested in the subject will find the mention
of a couple of score of works in Chinese on these subjects in
Wylie’s Notes on ChineseJLUeralure, pp. 91-104.

263

John Chinaman at School

constructed on the plan of that taught to our infant
classes in our Board Schools.* Under the Chinese
accountant’s deft and agile fingers, the balls fly
with lightning speed up and down the wires or
rods. With this combination of mental and
mechanical arithmetic, most rapid results are
obtained. But this has nothing to do with the
scholar, who simply picks up a knowledge of its
use from seeing it constantly employed, or, if he
enters upon a commercial life, has to be taught
its manipulations.

The complex character of the Chinese written
language and its inadaptability to be set down as
our Arabic numerals are in any position convenient
for the fundamental operations of addition, sub-
traction, multiplication, and division, and the
resulting complication of these simple processes
in more advanced calculations — all these tell
against the easy employment of the Chinese written
characters as sigtis in the carrying out of mathe-
matical operations. We scarcely appreciate the
facilities which our figures give us. We may
picture to ourselves how cumbrous it would be-
in fact, almost impossible — to carry out the com-
plex and intricate reckonings connected with the
whole branch of mathematical subjects in visible
and simple signs, were the Roman method of

It is interesting to find that there are several Russian customs
and habits similar to, or identical with, those of the Chinese ;
such, for instance, as the use of the counting-board in business,
the eating of melon seeds, &c.

264

Chinese Geographers

representing numbers the only S3nnbols at our dis-
posal. True it is that the Chinese have a simpler
method of arithmetical notation, a distant cousin
to ours, and the affinities of which to ours may
be traced ; but, though these might have been
employed as our figures are, the Chinese have
not advanced in this direction beyond a facility
in simply expressing numbers by them. The
disadvantages of the use of the abacus are that
it is only the process of reckoning as it proceeds
that is temporarily recorded, pari passu. There
is no long array of figures to go back on, and
detect any error in the calculation, nor to keep
as a record of the process by which the result
has been attained. Each step in the process
obliterates the former, until the final result is
reached.

Geography has been, under the old system, an
unknown study to the schoolboy, and the most
crass ignorance has been the normal condition
of the Chinese hitherto, who, misled by the name
of the Central Empire (or Middle Kingdom) of
their own land, and by the scant knowledge pos-
sessed of distant lands by their forefathers, have
supposed that China was the centre of the world,
which engrossed nearly the whole map, while other
nations inhabited islets scattered round the borders
of this projection of the earth’s surface. Though
grudging space for earth’s kingdoms, this curious
map had room to spare for the Milky Way, as the
Chinese believe it is connected with the earth.

265

John Chinaman at School

Natural Science, it may well be supposed, was
not thought of. A most unnatural nescience pre-
vails ; most ridiculous things are believed in this
connection, worthy of our own Mediaeval and Dark
Ages.

The acquisition of his own language was the
only task the Chinese schoolboy had to set himself
to, and notwithstanding it was his own, it was as
difficult as the learning of another tongue is to an
English boy ; for though he can speak his native
tongue, the language of the books is so different
as to take years of unremitting toil to acquire a
facility in its use. Many a boy after two or three
years at school, debarred by poverty from a
thorough education, left school with but a smatter-
ing of it, which was of but little use to him in
after life. Should official appointments come in
his way when a man, he then learns Mandarin.
To be a polyglot in Chinese, he must go out of
his own land, and thus in some foreign port, where
the different speeches of his many-tongued country
are gathered together, in the mart, and amidst
the exigencies of trade and commerce, be neces-
sarily acquires more than one of them.

Memory was the only thing exercised at first by
the youthful aspirant to Government position (for
this is the goal set before the student), and, in
consequence, he simply learned everything by heart
for the first year or two. It is much as if our
youngsters, when first sent to school, were set
down to learn off by heart, without any explanation

266

First Steps

at all, Cornelius Nepos or Caesar. The hook first
put before the boy did condescend to adapt itself
slightly to him by being written in rhyme in lines
of three words each ; but its style was above the
comprehension of the youthful brain. Here are a
few passages from it : —

“ Men at their birth, are by nature radically good ;

Though alike in this, in practice they widely diverge.

If not educated, the natural character grows worse ;

A course of education is made valuable by close attention.
Of old, Mencius's mother selected a residence.

And when her son did not learn, cut out the [half-wove]
web.

To nurture and not educate is a father’s error ;

To educate without rigour shows a teacher’s indolence.
That boys should not learn is an unjust thing;

For if they do not learn in youth, what will they do when
old?

As gems unwrought serve no useful end,

So men untaught will never know what right conduct is,”

After running over a number of subjects,
amongst them an epitome of Chinese history, thig
little Guide to Knowledge for the instruction of the
young ends thus : —

“ Diligence has merit ; play yields no profit ;

Be ever on your guard; rouse all your energies.’’

The next that succeeded this rather abstruse
treatise for a boy at the age of five or six, is a
unique book in tetrameter, consisting of just
a thousand characters. The story goes that the

267

John Chinaman at School

author (a.d. 550), commanded by the Emperor
to make an ode out of these thousand characters
handed to him, did so in one night ; but the tour
\de force of the effort, accomplished under the
fear of condign punishment if he failed, blanched
his raven locks. He was richly rewarded for his
great mental exertion and wondrous feat. How
any mortal brain, its actions confined within such
arbitrary limits, could accomplish the superhuman
task is a mystery. This second book begins
thus : —

“ The heavens are sombre ; the earth yellow ;

The whole universe [at the creation] was one wild waste.

A common third book is one entitled Odes for
Children^ in pentameter verse. Here are some
specimens of it : —

It is of the utmost importance to educate children ;

Do not say that your families are poor.

For those who can handle well the pen,

Go where they will, need never ask for favours.

One at the age of seven shewed himself a divinely endowed
youth,

‘Heaven,' said he, ‘gave me my intelligence:

Men of talent appear in the courts of the holy monarch.
Nor need they wait in attendance on lords and nobles.

In the morning I was an humble cottager,

In the evening I entered the Court of the Son of Heaven
Civil and military offices are not hereditary,

Men must, therefore, rely on their own efforts.

268

Learning the Classics

A passage for the sea has been cut through mountains,

And stones have been melted to repair the heavens ;

In all the world there is nothing that is impossible ;

It is the heart of man alone that is wanting resolution.

Once I myself was a poor indigent scholar,

Now I ride mounted in my four-horse chariot,

And all my fellow- villagers exclaim with surprise.’

Let those who have children thoroughly educate them.”

Then the classics were put into the schoolboy’s
hands. Everything was learned by heart for some
time even after this ; and each scholar^ to show
that he was at work, and probably the better to
fix in his memory what he was learning, shouted
out, over and over again, in a loud sing-song
tone, the passage he was learning, until he knew
it thoroughly. After which he went up to ithe
master by himself to “ back ” it, Le., he turned
his back on him, so as not to see his book lying
on the master’s desk, and said his lesson.

After the first year or so the master explained
to him what the scholar had learned ; so that after
this his progress was more intelligent, though even
yet it was necessarily slow and difficult, as his
books were in the classical language of China, the
book -language, tantamount almost to a dead lan-
guage — 2i dead language in living use, as far as
books are concerned ; but dead in speech. It is
terse, sententious, recondite, abstruse ; its dktion
and style are remote from the everyday speech ;
it is archaic in its form and vocabulary : so that
explanations and, commentaries are necessary.

269

John Chinaman at School

This memorising was varied by writing lessons,
which began with the tracing of good characters
through the thin Chinese paper with the Chinese
pen, which is really a brush. Further advanced,
the scholar learned to compose antithetical sen-
tences, in which each word and idea balanced one
in the companion sentence. Essays on texts from
the classics formed a part of a Chinese liberal
education ; and the making of verse, the counter-
part of our students writing Latin verse. All these
taxed the Chinese scholar’s powers of memory and
initiated him into the learning of his country’s past.
The result of all this is that a Chinese well-
educated scholar knows his classics by heart.
Name a passage, quote a line, or even a word or
two, and, though there is no index to them, in
a few minutes he will point it out to you in the
book, with its context.

He is thoroughly imbued with all the principles
which govern the rulers in their government of
his country, in the Government’s relations to the
people, as well as those which control the populace
in their relations and attitude towards the powers
that be. His thoughts go round in the well-trodden
circle of the ancients. Modernity is unknown to
him ; all the marvels of the present age have been
hitherto beyond the power of his conception.

But here we must put a full stop ; for the
ponderous tome of the past will soon be a closed
book ; a new volume is being opened, and though
the writing in it is uncertain, yet, as confidence

270

Competitive Examinations

and knowledge is attained, we predict the annals
which the future will read of the present will be
more glorious than all the mighty dust-laden
crowded book -shelves of the past have to show.

Even before the time of Confucius (b.C. 551),
education was general in China, and the State
afforded every encouragement to it ; but it was
not till long after the Christian era that those in
authority woke to the idea of employing it as a
training -ground for the Government official and
a bulwark to the State ; so that the highest posts,
short of the throne, were thrown open to any whose
talents brought them the highest distinctions in
learning, and whose abilities, when tried, supple-
mented their mental efforts. In this way it may
be said that the people in China are governed by
the people ; and the safety of the country is con-
served by the large mass of literati, whom this
system of education produced, and whose interests
are all on the side of peace and order.

It was late in China’s long page of history that
the system of competitive examinations for the Civil
Service took their origin. A long series of these
examinations was before the young man, which,
if sudcessfully passed, opened the gateway for
immediate or prospective employment in the service
of the State. It is said that the idea of our Civil
Service Examinations was taken from the Chinese.

The old lamps of education in China are now
being, changed for new ones ; but^ unlike Aladdin’s
wonderful lamp, the old lamps have lost their

271

John Chinaman at School

power to produce the wonder-working results they
achieved in the past, when by their light not only
China was illumined, but the whole Eastern world
about her as well. To change the metaphor
slightly, the old dim candles, well made as they
were in the age which produced them, have nearly
burned out, and the light is not sufficient for the
present needs of the nation. They have been
superseded, not by dim oil lamps, or even by gas,
but by the brilliant electric light of modern science
and knowledge.

The Chinese scholar, equipped as he was with
all the knowledge deemed essential in the Far East,
was like Dominie Dobiensis, described in Jacob
Faithful, who, though he breathed in the present
age, spent half of his life in antiquity and algebra.
Substitute the Chinese classics for algebra, and
you have the man. The greatest stimulus to exer-
tion for the Chinese student is the example of the
great Government mandarins going about in almost
regal state, and surrounded by what appears to
his eyes as the height of luxury. Every incentive
to the attainment of such an exalted position is
paraded before him, and the example of many a
poor youth who has risen to such a commanding
height is held up before him.

But the old order of things is changing. The
old style of education is ceasing to be the pass-
port to official employment. Most drastic changes
are being made ; a regular houleversemeni is
taking place. All through the Emjpire the old

272

The New Learning

schools are being replaced by the modern one,
modelled with more or less of similarity on those
of the West. The old classics arc being relegated
to a back shelf ; new school-books based on the
modern knowledge of the Occident are taking their
places on the desks ; and the scholars are trying
their best with the aid of their teachers to assimi-
late all they can from beyond the seas, from the
once-despised foreigner. The old saying, ex
oriente lax^ is being reversed, and the light is
coming ex occidente. One of the oldest nations
on earth, which for ages was an example and
teacher of others, is putting aside her pride, and
beginning to sit at the feet of peoples and nations
that were undreamt of, and whose progenitors were
wild, half-naked savages when China was at the
height of civilisation and refinement as compared
with them.

Hundreds of miles inland, away from the coast,
where the influence of the foreigner is more felt,
the author came across these modern schools. The
teachers often are woefully ignorant of this new
learning that they are attempting to impart to their
eager scholars ; but there is the desire on the part
of teachers and taught to learn something, nay, as
much as possible, of this new world of knowledge
and learning, and science and literature, to which
the events of the past few years have opened their
eyes and shown the advantage of acquiring, and
which they believe is to result in the uplift of

China to her former position again in the comity

273

John Chinaman at School

of world powers. Conceit and ignorance have
hitherto clouded their sight, and pride made them
disdain the idea of learning from the barbarians
of the West. The foremost spirits of the nation
have determined that the reproach of being unable
to hold their own shall not continue; and as the
learning and science of the West, they believe,
has made Europe and America great and power-
ful, China will learn these same arts and mysteries
of knowledge, so as to regain her wonted greatness,
and hold up her head once more, and be respected.

The lands or buildings of a Buddhist monastery
are seized, or resumed by the Government, ^ and
their halls, lands, or funds appropriated for educa-
tional or other purposes of necessity in connection
with the forward advance of the nation, without
a word daring to be said against it — in fact, with
the approbation of a majority of tlie inhabitants.
This is one way of meeting the great expenses
which must necessarily be incurred at the present
moment in China; another is to demand by a
powerful Viceroy, from some wealthy institution,
a contribution for the needs of, say, a Provincial
Government, without a demur being made. One
of the late Governors-General of two of the largest
provinces in South China mulcted a famous and
well-known temple in the sum of $50,000 (say
£5,000), with the result that some of their lands

* Many of the religious establishments are largely indebted to
Imperial patronage and liberality for their primary existence or
extension.

m

Are the People Educated?

had to be disposed of, and thus their extensive
property curtailed. This mandarin required money
for the many new undertakings that were being
entered into, amongst them schools of one kind
and another. What more natural than to obtain
the requisite funds from an effete institution, whose
inmates mumbled prayers once a day before im-
passive images without any benefit to the com-
munity? The world is progressing, and what is
useless must go. The support of some hundreds
of idle monks whose day is past is absurd. Every
Chinaman of intelligence will tell you that the
Buddhist monk of the present day is a drone.

It is a difficult matter to judge of the amount
of education abroad in the land. Are the people
all educated or not ? From what has already
been said, it will be gathered that some at least
of the boys are unable to remain long enough at
school to benefit much by the small amount of
instruction they have received. It is only the
well-to-do, as a rule, that are fairly well educated,
according to the standards of the past, which, as
we have seen, arc not well adapted to prepare them
for the world of the present day.

Thousands and millions of boys have to leave
school before they can read intelligently the
difficult Chinese language: they go out to earn
their daily rice, with a smattering of the Chinese
character. Take up a book, and they can pick
up words here and there which they know; but
this knowledge is not sufficient to enable them to

275

John Chinaman at School

understand thoroughly what they see before them.
To many, the result of some years of study is that
a simple book is understood more or less, but
it must be written in a most easy style. Even with
a plain style it often happens that many passages
and words must be passed over without more than
a guess at their meaning, and often not even that.

Schools have abounded all over the Empire y
every village has at least one; but years of study
are required to ground even a Chinese boy .in
the elements of his own language, though, as has
been already said, Chinese is the only langua:ge
learned, and all his attention is devoted to it alone,
and, if he wishes to be well educated, all his
energies must be concentrated on it solely for ten
or twenty years of his life. Sooner or later this
beautiful but cumbrous language will have to burst
its bonds of antiquity and appear afresh in an
alphabetical form.

There is an eagerness for education which it
would be difficult to find surpassed by any nation
under heaven. Society is divided into four classes,
and scholars head the list, to be followed by
farmers, labourers, and lastly merchants. The
apotheosis of the scholar is the mandarin, and
the schoolmaster is most highly honoured, though
in the very depths of abject poverty. The teach-
ing profession, instead of being one to be despised,
is one of the highest in China.

In the scheme of education which has prevailed
in China, the female element may be left out of

276

Progress

calculation, for hitherto it has been almost a
negligible quantity. Octasionally one comes across
a woman who can rea'd^ but it is a rare occurrence.
During the twenty-five to thirty years which the
author spent in law Courts in China it was indeed
seldom for him to come across a woman who could
sign her name to an affidavit, and when one was
able to do it, it was exceptional if such a one
could do it otherwise than most laboriously.

Girls’ schools are now being widely established.
Notable cases of educated women have their
exploits emblazoned on the grand roll of Chinese
worthies, notwithstanding all the diffiiCulties in their
way, and have been esteemed on that account.
Now a grand future is opening out not only for
the boys but the girls in China.

The number who have taken the B.A. degree
in China for some years past amounts to 14,000,
and it has been estimated that there are 700,000
Chinese graduates now living in that so-called
Land of Literature and Learning. These form a
nucleus round which a large circle of the educated
cluster. Some have estimated the educated class
in China as 15,000,000. This is far too small
an estimate. Different results would be obtained
even by most extended inquiries, as answers most
dissimilar would be given by different men in
different parts of the Empire and in town or
country. If, as in England' and other European
countries, books were written in the speech of
the people, education would not be such a very

277 T

John Chinaman at School

'difficult thing as it has been in China. Ho^w
greatly the difficulties of education in our land
would be increased, difficult enough as they are
now, if all the children’s books at school were
written in the language of Chaucer!

278

CHAPTER XXII

John Chinaman Out of Doors

J OHN CHINAMAN lives very much out of
doors. Before the open-air craze infected
England he had practised it for thousands of
years. When he is indoors he is generally out
of doors ; for the houses are open all through
their interiors, paved courts open to the sky alter-
nating with the main buildings. Thus the open
door has prevailed throughout the Empire, though
the outer door was shut to outsiders, and the
closed door was presented to foreign nations.
Closed doors on the street front are often the
order of the day, though this by no means excludes
the fresh air from large mansions.

In the south all the shops have an open front,
such as the English greengrocer often displays.
In the coldest weather the shopman sits at his
counter the livelong day, exposed to every wind of
heaven that blows. This living so much in the open
air doubtless neutralises to a large extent the in-
sanitary conditions prevalent. The mild condition

279

John Chinaman Out of Doors

of the weather during the greater part of the
year also fosters al fresco meals and an open-air
life.

To make up for this free open life during the
day, John Chinaman shuts himself up at night in
the closest atmosphere possible in cabin or bed-
ropm, and in cold weather rolls himself up in a
cotton quilt, head and feet and body, till he looks
like a corpse. How he manages to breathe in
this bundled-up condition is a mystery ; but he
seems to survive all right, and be none the worse
for it.

In the hot summer nights many a house empties
the sleepers out of doors — at least as far as regards
the men-folk. Many of them lie in t^^e streets on
boards or mats or bamboo-beds. Some mount
to the roofs and sleep on the drying-stages which
most of the houses have for drying clothes, or for
sunning vegetables of one sort or another. Occa-
sionally, like Eutychus of old, one heavy with sleep
may descend more rapidly than safely (such a
thing has been known), and sleep his last sleep
with no Apostle Paul to waken him out of it.

On certain days, such as the Dragon Boat Feast,
the whole family of John Chinaman goes out of
doors, and the river-bank is lined with spectators
to see the boat-races. Father, mother, sons, and
daughters, together with the slave -girls conveying
pipes for the ladies to smoke and also carrying
the babies, are the happiest of the happy throng.

On the annual Tomb-Worshipping Day there
280

A CHINESE CROWD AT AN OUT-OF-DOORS THEATRE.

Country Excursions

is a regular exodus into the country. Old and
young gather round the family tombs on the hill-
sides outside the city walls. After the ceremonial
genuflections and offerings of pork and fowl and
other eatables, the burning of incense and candles,
and the adding of a turf on to the former years'
sods on the mound over the dead, the family picnic
in the open.

Men will go to a monastery in some of the
beautiful hill countries within a short journey of
some of China’s teeming cities and spend some
time in the cool air, combining religious exercises
with a summer outing. There are suites of apart-
ments for the use of such devotees of Nature and
the gods. Ladies also avail themselves of these
opportunities to go into retreat.

An immense amount of travelling goes on in
China, principally, almost entirely, for business
purposes; and day’s trips, or long journeys even,
are taken for purchases or sales of goods and
visits to markets. In all of these ways John China-
man manages to get a good share of fresh air
without definitely setting forth for that purpose.

John Chinaman and his womenkind are keenly
interested in theatricals, and often the theatre is but
an open shed, where performances will go on for
days and nights in succession, one play following
on the heel of another with scarce an intermission.
The journey by road or boat from the country-
side around to the centre of attraction, where a
god’s birthday starts the theatricals, gives a

281

John Chinaman Out of Doors

good outing to the natives of the surrounding
parts .

Much of the buying and selling and marketing,
instead of being carried on indoors and in roofed-
over buildings, is done just outside the front door.
There is no need to go shopping, for the shops
come to you ; at least, the street -hawkers pass
along in almost constant succession. Especially
is this the case with those selling food at meal-
times. Now it is a silk-floss man with his two
dark- wood cupboards, like mamtnoth ar moires^ but
a; mass of drawers, in which, as he opens them,
the richest gleams of soft silk glint in the glorious
sunlight with golden hues and all the colour of
the rainbow. Soberer shades of braid and all
the many other etceteras which aro attendant on
a lady’s wardrobe are to be found nestled here
and there in his drawers.

The mistress and her maids gather round him,
as he discloses his treasures, and the slave-girls
also admire, while the serving-women handle and
advise and give their op'inion on the merits and
demerits of his stock, with the freedom which
the Oriental household allows to all its inmates,
however humble they be. Bangles, rings,
bracelets, odds and ends of silk -floss, all care-
fully rearranged in their receptacles, he shoulders
his burden, and goes down the street lightened
by a few ounces, while his purse is heavier by
a few cash. Twirling his rattle this chapman dis-
appears .

282

Food Hawkers

There is no need to go round to the grocer’s
at the corner, or to the more distant oil-shop, to
buy oil, as here comes the oil -man with his dark-
brown tubs, full of the peanut-oil with wihich
nearly all the Chinese cooking is accomplished.
The same oil served in the tiny saucer lamps as an
illuminant before the introduction of kerosene.

Next comes a fish-seller with great fat carp
lying alive in their ovm element in his circular,
flat, shallow wo,oden tubs, or it may be a species
of herrings, which, being smaller, are able to splash
about in the water. Or the fishmonger may have
a load of white rice-fish, white translucent little
mites with two tiny black specks for eyes. If
none of these are to: the taste of the would-be
diner, then let him wait a few minutes, and some
other kinds of pond or fresh-water fish will come
along, heralded by the street cry of the vendors.
If great tench are what you want, a. large fish
has already been cut up, and is lying on the basket-
tray this man carries as well as a tub. It is
cut right down along the back-bone, and the red
blood is smeared all over the white flesh of the
fish.

His steelyards are with him, as with all the
hawkers, and he will gladly weigh the exact
quantity you want, or if it is a live fish he will
hook him up by the gills and let you know his
weight, while the poor fish is floundering and
quivering suspended in the air, and then, if suit-
able, he will scale and cut it open for you, all on

283

John Chinaman Out of Doors

the Street. But if it is a tasty piece of salt -fish
you want, the salt -fish man with his sun-dried
fish in his huge basket-ware carriers will supply
your wants with his stock in the same way at
your very door.

Now that the fish is provided for breakfast or
dinner, what about vegetables? They are also
forthcoming in the same way, each peripatetic
vendor of these often having but one kind, though
sometimes several sorts are found in the baskets
of the man. They are carried in the way usual
for bearing loads in China, viz., in two baskets
suspended from the ends of the carrying-pole or
bamboo, which latter is laid across the shoulder,
and changed from one shoulder to the other when
the man is tired. The bearers of these and other
burdens often have callosities and great lumps
on the shoulders from the constant loads they
bear — loads greater, one would suppose at times,
than mortal flesh could stand.

Almost everything John Chinaman needs can
thus be bought on the streets. Not only the
necessities but tasty luxuries as well — sugar-cane,
oranges, water-melons, all kinds of fruits, sweet-
meats, pickles. A perambulating soup-kitchen will
occasionally pass. The owner announces his
arrival by clapping two bits of bamboo together.
Occasionally a travelling lending-library will come
down the street, with well-stocked bamboo book-
shelves, Of course its staple commodities are
novels, and in a well-to-do family there may be

284

Shopping

one or two of the women -folk with a sufficient
knowledge of the characters to be able to read
them.

All this out-of-doots sale of goods in the street
and on your doorstep does not mean that there
are no shops or stalls. There are an immense
number of them ; and it is an almost out-of-door
life that the shopkeepers live. As a rule thtere
are, as we have said, no shop-fronts, they

are not closed in, though there are a few pre-
monitory symptoms of that coming. The whole
front of the shop is open to the street.

The whole contents of the shop hanging on
walls or displayed on shelves, or, in the case of
the more valuable wares in glass cases, are visible
to you (except in the case of some kinds of goods)
as you pass along the street ; for windows are
cpnspicuous by their absence. Even the process
of manufacture is being carried on coram publico,
as, for instance, with gold and silversmiths.

All the bargaining that goes on between
customer and shopman is patent to the passer-
by in the street, and, if you are a foreigner, a
little crowd will gather to hear you beating down
the price .

If you have been long enough in China, you
will have learned how to get your bargains at a
reasonable price, and learned from watching wily
John Chinaman at this work, which is a delight
to him.

With a: casual air he stops and asks what the
285

John Chinaman Out of Doors

shopman is willing' to sell this article for, to be
told a figure ridiculously high, perhaps twice
what it is worth. He meets this, after having-
pointed out some defects, or the low quality of
the goods, by offering considerably less than its
value. (“ It is naught, it is naught [it is worth-
less], saith the buyer ; but when he is gone his
way, then he boasteth.” — Prov. xx, 14.)

Each side raises Oir lowers its prices, and so
the higgling goes on till John Chinaman finally
retreats into the street, if he is not there already,
as if to leave such high-priced goods alone, while
the solicitous shopman follows him to the very
door, if not out of doors, as he rapidly reduces
his terms, in the hope of bringing his prospective
customer back.

Walks for the sake of walking, when we walk
along the streets or roads, swinging our arms
and stepping out with vigour and drinking in the
fresh air, are nearly unknown. Chinese men will
sometimes say, not, “ Let’s go for a walk,” but,
‘‘ Let’s walk along the street.” This is almost
as much to see the sights in the streets as for
exercise. Occasionally they may be seen saunter-
ing along a country road near a city ; but their
whole attitude and bearing is as far from our idea
of iwhat a walk is as England is from China.
An Englishman takes his dog out for a walk.
A Chinaman would never think of a canine com-
panion walking along the road with him ; but
he will take his caged lark out into the open

286

Amusements

to get the air. He carries the cage upright on
his palm or hand, and sets it down in the grass,
while he stands and enjoys the brisk, lively
creature’s joy, or crouches down on his haunches
beside the cage.

In the hot summer evenings the river- or
harbour -side may be haunted by crowds more or
less in deshabille to cool themselves, while on
the drying-stages on the house -roofs others are
seeking a breath of air.

At certain seasons of the year a ring will be
formed, and the heels, sides, and soles of the
shoes be used to kick the shuttlecock by men,
while boys watch, or try their prentice, not hands,
but feet, at attempts more or less successful to
do the same. Kites are also flown by men as
well as by boys. What will soon be a thing of
the past is the archery indulged in by the aspirant
candidate for military commands, as well as
the peculiar athletic exercises carried on by
them.

The Chinese ladies do not get much of this
out-of-door existence. Very few are to be seen
in the streets. If they venture out, and are young
and pretty, they expose themselves to the jeers
of the loafers, who make insulting remarks about
them. When paying a social call or on a visit
to a temple, &c., the proper thing is to go in a
sedan-chair, and- thus, with blinds let down,
the lady is almost invisible to the crowd through
which she rapidly passes, safe from insult with

287

John Chinaman Out of Doors

hen woman -servant or two rapidly trotting behind
her.

Wealthy gentlemen are very fond of what are
called gardens laid out in their grounds or Jn the
suburbs, and here the ladies of the family may
disport themselves. There are no flower-beds,
almost all the plants being in ornamental pots
of various shapes and designs. Some flowering
trees are rooted in the ground. Even with or
without a garden, plants will be found in pots
or ornamental stands in the courtyards. The
nearest approach to flower-beds is the enclosing
against a wall of a bank, or trench rather, of
earth, which is raised above the ground by a
low wall on the outside. This wall is mainly
formed of open-work ornamented glazed foot-
square tiles. In the soil placed within these large
sort of troughs, plants are grown. Bamboos droop
like lovely Prince of Wales feathers, while plan-
tain or banana-trees flap their enormous long and
broad leaves in the breeze, if any reaches them
in these enclosed and secluded spots. A garden
is not complete in China without a pond, or a
succession of them. Once provided, it or they are
immediately filled up with the large peltate leaves
of the lotus, which rise a little above the surface of
the water, each as large as a small tea-tray.
Long, rambling bridges lead to little summer-
houses perched up in the centre of the water.
In other parts one comes across rock -work
of the most marvellous construction, adding

28S

Private Gardens

not a little to the bizarre aspect of the whole

place.

Kiosks and summer-houses are dotted about,
and rockeries of artificial stone-work, grotesque
in their miniature precipitous heights, arrest one’s
steps. The paths are lined with rows of plants
in pots on high glazed earthenware stands. At
times you pass between two rows of boxwood in
these pots, trained into the shape of birds, animals,
and men, the heads and hands in earthenware stuck
on to the plants. A private stage may be found,
where a theatrical troupe, hired for the occasion,
will perform before the family and friends. Lpw
walls to place pots of flowers on, built up of
open-work green glazed foot-square tiles, add a
piquancy to these private grounds. Large build-
ings will be found here and there ready for a
picnic. Chinese art has supplied blackwood furni-
ture, paintings, geometrical open-work French
doors, three-legged stools, the tops a large mass
of rock, uncut or but little trimmed, smooth and
deliciously cool on a broiling hot summer’s day.
Besides all the above there may be long cloister-
like corridors, on the walls of which there will
be seen almost endless rubbings of classical
writings, or of the elegant caligr'aphy of some
master-hand.

Amidst such congenial scenes the Chinese
gentleman saunters, enjoying to the full the varied
objects. His wives and children will wander
around with a whole retinue of servants and

289

John Chinaman Out of Doors

domestic slave-girls^, when no men-folk are about,
taking their pleasure in a quieter way, except for
the clatter of tongues. The small-fe.eted ladies
lean on the shoulder of dependants, as they
hobble along, their crippled state prieventing any-
thing in the way of vigorous exercise, and the
traditions of the race being alsoi against violent
motion, unless necessity demands it.

There is one type of outdoor attraction which
draws John Chinaman out of doors by the hundreds
and thousands, and it is very similar in its out-
come to the pageants which are all the rage in
England at the present time ; but the fashion in
China is probably century-old. Under the name
of processions there is almost always something
of the kind going on. Every chance of having
one is seized on in China, whether; it be in con-
nection with religious festivities, a marriage, a
funeral, or official comings and goings. Let us
begin with some of the smaller ones. One of the
saddest is that that takes the criminals to the
execution ground, otherwise used as a potter’s
field. The street-gates, consisting of upright
bars fixed into sockets in a granite slab across
the street, are nearly closed. The chief things
that one notices are the half -stupefied, huddled-
up human objects, each carried in a basket
like animals. The whole business is soon over,
and the clay furnaces are brought out again
on the potter’s field to dry in the sun. A
few corpses, minus the head, are, carried off for

290

street Sights

interment^ and except for one of thdse objects
under a JXi\aX^ land the blood-stained ground, nothing
is left to show what has taken place.

Occasionally one may come suddenly in one of
the narrow alleys upon a curious little cavalcade
rapidly passing along, the chief feature in which
is the wretched thief, who is receiving his punish-
ment out of doors, and being whipped through the
streets. Particulars of his crime are written out
and exhibited, so that all may know. A gong
is a most important part of this procession^ and
at each beat of it down comes the whip on the
thief’s back. As soon a,s all the streets of the
ward in which the theft took place ate gone
through the unfortunate man is let gp> glad to
escape from the clutches of the law.

Still out of doors are some of the other punish-
ments, though not rising to the dignity of a pro-
cession, such, for instance, as the wearing of the
cangae, or wooden collar, out in the streets, or
at the gate of some court. The victim is unable
to feed himself, as the framework his neck is
enclosed in prevents his putting his hands up to
his mouth.

No high official goes out of his yamSn, or official
residence, without a: procession. The Chinese are
economical in their salutes, but they have them
often. Three reports signal the coming out of
the “ great man.” In our lands such an occasion
would be shorn down to its lowest p-Ossible limits.
A grand carriage .or two with gorgeous footmen

291

John Chinaman Out of Doors

and coachmen, and voild tout; but the stately
booming gong has to herald the magnate’s pro-
gress, as the beater gives regular blows on it,
and lets them vibrate and fill the whole air with
their waves of sound. The insignia of his rank
and the posts he has held are in large cha^racters
on wooden tablets. A big official umbrella is
carried before him, fully spread, akin to the
haldacchino of Italy ; a monster fan on a pole,
too \ then his lictors rattling iron chains, and
some attendants behind him on ponies. A quiet,
gaping crowd which lines both sides of the streets
but does not move or raise a sound, stares silently
on one of their rulers, who has risen from their
ranks to this exalted position in his eight-bearer
sedan-chair.

Marriage and funeral processions are made
little of in England, and the show, except in
military ones, is very tame and commonplace.
But in China before the wedding itself there are
two or three preliminary small processions, when
the presents are being exchanged between the
parties and the bride’s trousseau is being sent. In
the latter case every article which can be is painted
a bright red — the colour of joy and rejoicing — and
tables and chairs, clothes-horse, basin -stand, and
all the necessary articles for housekeeping, are
paraded through the streets, little ragamuffin boys
carrying them, or not much cleaner men bearing
them on their shoulders or in stands or suspended
from poles.

292

Processional Glories

Almost every procession is heralded with two
gigantic globular lanterns, on poles, resting on
the shoulders, and high above the heads of all.
In a grand procession, lanterns of different kinds
come in here and there in its course, a batch of
half a dozen or a dozen or more, glass and finely
ornamented, sometimes horn ones. But the two
in front of the procession are often made of
bamboo-splints and oiled paper with large
characters on them'. In a wedding procession
these characters represent the surname of the
person being married. Then bands of musicians
are interspersed through the procession, rending
the air with their noisy, harsh tones — discordant
sopnds to our ears— of clashing cymbals, banging,
booming gongs, clicking drums, shrill flageolets,
flutes, and guitars ; for both string bands and wind
instruments appear in these grand ambulations
through the streets. Numerous litters or stands
with canopied roofs, or open to the sky, have
ornaments on them.

In the case of a wedding procession, one has
a number of sugar ornaments, in the shape of
animals and different things, toothsome objects
afterwards for the children. Large sum's of money
are spent on this paraphernalia ; but the most
important thing of all is the large red sedan-chair
in which the poor little bride is shut up close.
It is a marvel of Chinese art, profusely carved
and tastefully adorned with myriads of kingfisher’s’
feathers. On a hot summer’s day it must be

293 o

John Chinaman Out of Doors

perfectly suffocating inside it, and a poor bride
has been dromied befor'e now when crossing a
river from the boat having capsized with the heavy
chair aboard. If the families are well-to-do, such
a procession is no mean affair, and articles by the
score will appear in this strange peregrination,
requiring hundreds of coolies to carry them
through the crowded streets, to* the delight of all.
The Chinese often impoverish themselves over their
marriages.

Funeral processions, again, can be grand affairs,
taking an hour to pass a given spot. The shrill
clarionets pipe forth their dirge ; but it requires
a trained ear, which few Westerners can attain,
to know the difference between this and the joyous
notes of the marriage strains. Two enormous
mourning lanterns, of course, lead the way borne
aloft ; bands of musicians perform ; a sedan-chair
contains a conventional portrait of the deceased ;
a kind of portable altar is borne before the coffin,
with a tablet and candles with sticks of incense,
their tiny points glowing with light.

If a man had many friends, a prominent feature
is the number of large oblong banners, yards wide
and many yards high, in mourning colour's— purple,
and blue, &c., containing suitable inscriptions
which take the place that wreaths occupy with
us. The huge coffin at last appears, carried by
eight, sixteen, or more coolies, sometimes on a
catafalque, but with a red cloth thrown over it.
And then comes the saddest sight of all— the

294

THE DRAGON PROCESSION.

Idol Processions

mourners, clothed in coarse hempen mockery of
wearing apparel, with bands of the same on their
heads, holding staves with white paper round them
in their hands ; and the women-folk wailing the
dead in the most forlorn and eerie manner. Paper
imitation money is scattered on the way along
the roads, to keep the ghosts from troubling the
living or the dead, as the pilgrimage wends its way
and finally climbs some desolate hill-side, where
on some high ridge or sloping height the grave
is placed.

But the occasion of some idol festival of a
god, when the image is taken out for a proces-
sion with the insignia of official rank and a stand
with charms from his temple, may be made into
a fine affair with sufficient subscriptions. In times
of epidemic thousands will be spent to- get up
one of the grandest of these processions. Then
appear the most magnificent costumes, lovely in
the richness of their colour, and beautiful, gorgeous
screens of embroidery of kingfishers’ feathers and
glass ; covered stands, with curios and eatables ;
hundreds of bannerets ; several idols in their
shrines, with their retinues, and girls by the score
riding -on ponies and representing historical
cha:racters ; tableaux vivants of children and girls,
beautifully dressed in gorgeous costumes, carried
on stands representing scenes in past ages of
China’s long and interesting story ; and finally,
maybe, a gigantic dragon or two made of cloth
and tinsel and spangles, a hundred or more feet

29s

Jolm Chinaman Out of Doors

in length, prancing about, supported by scores
upon scores of strong and healthy young men,
whose legs only are visible beneath the flowing
silk and spangles which form the body ‘of the
great monster.

A chapter out of fairyland is revealed when a
lantern-procession is seen. Tens upon tens of
gigantic fishes made of gauze illuminated with
lights inside and lanterns and transparencies
innumerable is a sight not to be forgotten.

296

CHAPTER XXIII

John Chinaman Indoors

N ot only when John Chinaman is indoors is he
almost out of doors, but when out of doors
his streets are again often so shaded' with matting
and boards, to shut out the fierce sun, that he
might as well be indoors. When be goes into his
house, if it is of any size, and not a mere hovel,
he is out of doors again ; for a Chinese house,
unless it be the living-plalc'e of the very poorest,
is but a multiplicity of houses strung together, one
may say, and stretched out as long as his purse-
strings will allow, and almost as broad as circum-
stances permit. John Bull piles storey on storey,
though he has not yet attained to the sky-scraper
heights of Brother Jonathan ; but John Chinaman
spreads himself out, and not content with scattering
his buildings over the ground, he will often bring
a garden or two within the precincts of his
mansion. If he has no room for that, he will be
satisfied with rock -work, and instead of parterres
and plots of flowers, a style of gardening he does

297

John Chinaman Indoors

not understand, he will have a fruit garden of
oranges growing in flower-pots, and flowers bloom-
ing all the year round in similar portable
substitutes for plots, which, when the blooms are
past, can be carried away by the florist, and re-
placed with seasonable plants bursting into bud
and afflorescence. Thus within-doors John China-
man has an ever -circulating garden.

A mansion modestly hides itself behind a' plain
brick wall, just as a plain man’s house makes no
show. In the one ease the bricks may be of a
better quality and nt'ore neatly pointed than those
of the poor man’s abode ; the double door being
of good hard-wood and more prettily decorated
than the humble dwelling. It may be safer in the
East to shelter oneself frorpi the public view ; a
flaunting of one’s wealth is not always advisable,
lest possibly forced contributions be demanded;,
and one’s magnificence suffer at the expense of
one’s unwilling munificence.

The streets that the houses front on are mostly
narrow, and paved with longitudinal slabs of granite
or other stone. Two or three steps of the same stone,
as long as the front of the house, but shallow in
height, and which almost form a part of the street,
are placed in front. No garden or railings divide
it from,' the roadway. Two enormous rotund
lanterns generally hang one on each side of the
door, especially on the first and fifteenth iof the
month.. These swell out in proportion to the great-
ness of. the master’s position, till often ^ Sir John

298

street Inscriptions

Falstaff could hide in one, provided he could get
in through the top or bottom^ and if the lantern,
made of bamboo strips and oiled paper, were
strong enough to hold him'. These are gaily
painted with scarlet, and the occupant’s name is
put in black characters on them'.

Over the doorway, in the centre, is an elongated
round lantern, much smaller, or a small version
of the big ones, with the word “ God,” or “ Spirit,”
in large character on it, and “ Reverence ” in small
character. These are not necessarily always
lighted at night, as they are more for show than
brilliance. Their brilliance is in thC paint, when
newly put up. Once suspended, they are allowed
to hang, the sport of wind and rain, as they lightly
sway about with every gust ; so tliat ere long
they become tom and shabby, their skeleton frame-
work showing through their surface, tattered and
worn. The grey-blue brick wall is relieved by
two bright red strips of paper, pasted on the wall
down each side of the door, with antithetical sen-
tences written on them!. Over the doorway is
another piece, often with the good wish that “ The
Five Blessings may descend on this door,” or a
similar felicitous phras:e ; or, sometimes only five
pieces pf red oblong paper perforated in strips,
which are supposed tp convey the same wish.;

Has the tenant obtained a degree at tfiC
examinations? Then his literary title is set forth
in black characters on a scarlet board hung over
the door. Should his friends attain a like dis-i

299

John Chinaman Indoors

tinction, the notices of it sent to him are
pasted on the outside wall of his house, like great
advertisements a yard or two long and two or
three feet in width. The colour of the paper and
that of the ink varies according to the degree
taken. Sometimes a small wooden tablet is hupg
at the side of the door, or a piece of paper is
pasted up with the occupant’s surname on it.

At the New Year, or rather just before, in
preparation for it, there is a scrubbing and a
washing outdoors and in. If a house was never,
clean before, it is fairly clean now, except in the
dark corners. All the scraps of paper flapping
about on the outside wall, as mentioned above, are
torn down and fresh put up, ready for the great
day of the year. Everything looks spick-and-span.
But, alas ! many a house will appear in mourning
even at this most festive and joyous time. At any
other season of the year, if a death occurs, the
red papers are torn down, and white ones pasted
up in their stead for deep mourning, to be replaced
later by blue ones for half -mourning.

At such a time the gay -coloured lanterns are out
of place, so mourning ones are hung up. A pecu-
liarly shaped ornament is hung over the door,
draped in white, and its rods covered with white.
A mat-shed is put up, and rises above the narrow
street. A white paper stork is hoisted high on a
bamboo pole, with a gigantic sort of tassel of
white paper with streamers. A long funereal in-
scription on white paper with a peculiar border

300

Mourning Symbols

of colours, yards and yards in length and a yard
or two in height, is pasted up on the outer wall of
the house, and protected from the weather by a
mat roof over it.

As we have already said, white is deep mourning,
and the chief mourners at a funeral follow the
cofSn clothed in the coarsest hempen unbleached
cloth of an almost yellow hue, and of the loosest
texture imaginable. Though blue is half-moum-
ing, strange to say blue clothing is not mourning at
all, or the whole nation nearly would be in mourn-
ing. Blue cord braided into the end of the queue
denotes slight mourning, and white deep. The
shoes also show that a man is in mourning, and
some of the ornaments in a woman’s hair.

The main door of a Chinese house is two-leaved,
m'assive and large, and of hard-wood in good
mansions ; outside it are a pair of lighter doors,
which only reach half or two -thirds of the way
up. A small railing runs along the top of these
doors, and a rattan or bamboo hoop goes over
the jutting-up portions, at the edges of the two
little doors, and holds them together, and there is
a wooden bolt as well. The main doors have two
large wooden bolts. Sometimes, usually in large
mercantile houses, a framework of wooden bars
can be shot back and forward as a door.

Stepping inside a high threshold, one finds one-
self within what is simply an entrance-hall ; but
it is placed athwart the house, and does not run
up, into the house, as with us. It is under a

301

John Chinaman Indoors

separate sntall roof. On one side will be found
a shrine to some god ; it may be simply a piece
of red paper with some deity’s name on it, and
incense is burned twice a day before it.

At one side may be found the gate-keeper’s
lodge or room', if the family is in such a position
as to warrant the keeping of such an important
individual. There is no door-bell or knocker at
the door. More primitive styles are necessary to
attract the attention of the inmates, if there is no
porter : and these are various— rattling the door,
banging it with umbrella or, fist, or slapping it
with flat of band, and shouting, must at times all
be resorted to. The delay is often considerable,
and awkward in heavy rain.

Facing one as one enters the front door, and
but a few steps further on, a row of tall double-
leaved doors stretches across the way. The doors,
it may be remarked, have m'ost primitive old-
world hinges, such as were used in our. land in
bygone times. A stick projects at top iand bottom
of door and works in a hole made for it in stone
or wood let into the floor, and in a: beam at top.
These wooden projections set in sockets act very
well in the place of hinges.

When one has penetrated thus far into a Chinese
mansion, one begins to understand the construction
of Chinese houses. Roof follows roof in succession,
with open paved courtyards between. Side-
cloisters on each side of the courtyards join the
main bpildings. These buildings, linked loosely

302

Within the House

on to one another, may number three or four,
or they may run to half a dozen or more. To
this central range of buildings in a large mansion,
auxiliary ranges of similar structure may be linked
on, arranged in the same manner alongside, and
connected by a doorway.

Gardens in a large house will be found in these
side regions ; but most of the flowers are in flower-
pots. There are but few windows opening out of
doors in Chinese houses. The style of construction
does not lend itself readily to their free adoption,
and the prejudices due to fung-shui hinder their
acceptance, except on the frontage of rivers and
on to the intervening spaces — the interior court-
yards between the different roofs of a ihohse. Thdse
numerous open spaces or paved courtyards, in the
interiors of houses, especially in large houses, take
the place of outer windows to a great extent, as
a row of windows will open on to them from the
apper stories of the different main buildings, which
are separated by them and joined together by side-
galleries. The great part of the dwelling is on
the ground floor, though there will be in some of
the buildings some accommodation on a second
storey, to which a steep staircase gives access . The
floors on the upper storey are of boards ; buit on
the ground floor generally of foot-square, semi-
porous red tiles an inch thick. These easily break,
and are damp, and in poor, and old houses they
are not mtich better, than mud floors. Thin marble
tiles about the same size are sometimes seen..

303

John Chinaman Indoors

The foundations of the house are often of
granite^ the walls of a bluish-grey brick, and the
roof very generally of thin red pan and roll tiles
in alternate rows. In good houses a second layer
of tiles is laid over the firsts and even a third is
not unknown.

In the abodes of the rich, much elegance may
be seen. Large pen-and-ink sketches, usually un-
framed, hang as a centre-piece, or a number of
them, sometimes framed, if smaller, are hung round
the walls ; curios are seen and a vase or tWp.
Though the Chinese do not attain the simplicity
of the Japanese in the adornment of their apart-
ments, yet there is not the overloading of a room
with brie -k -brae, of which there is often too much
in the West.

There may be elegance, but there is a lack of
comfort in the large barn-like halls which serve
for reception-rooms. There are large halls, but
often stuffy little rooms partitioned off for bed-
rooms : spaciousness in one part, confinement in
the other. There are no ceilings, or but seldom,
though the roof -beams in a good house will be
painted, and the inside surface of the roof -tiling
whitewashed. Thete is a scarcity of floor coverings
in the way of carpets or rugs. There are no fire-
places or stoves ; so the inntates go shivering about
on their carpetless tiled floors with doors open on
to the open courtyard. Clothes are piled on, to
keep out the cold in winter ; so that the thin man
becomes apparently stout, and the little baby is

304

THE GUEST HALL IN A CHINESE GENTLEMAN’S HOUSE, HONG KONG.

Furniture

almost as broad as long. Brass foot -warmers and

hand-warmers are used by some to keep these
extremities of the body warm, A live cake or two of
charcoal-dust is buried in the ashes in them, and
the heat thus conserved lasts for several hours.
It follows as a matter of course that there is an
absence of chimneys. A few may be seen, and
more are yearly appearing over the new manu-
factories necessitated by the adoption of Western
money, electricity, water-works, &c.

In the courtyards and about the house will
often be found numerous stools, which form pretty
accessions to the meagre and primitive Chinese
furniture. There ntay also be large, square, high
stools of Chinese ebony, with marble tops. Marble-
topped tables are scattered in different rooms.
Large hard couches, nearly as broad as long, are
seen at the top of the room, ready for the opium-
smoker, with all the accessories of the seductive
vice. Long paper scrolls with inscriptions hang
on the walls, if pictures do not already take up
the space. Sometimes besides the centre-piece,
already mentioned, a few pen-and-ink sketches,
framed and glazed, are seen, though when in the
shape of kakemonocs they simply hang open on
the wall. Ornamental lanterns in glass and ebony
or silk gauze hang about. There is, however, not
a domfortable sofa in the whole establishment
of rambling rooms, and one may wander through
the whole straggling; congeries of buildings and not
fiitd an easy arm-chair. The only approach to

305

John Chinaman Indoors

comfort is sometimes found in a leather folding-
chair like our ship-chairs. The poet Cowper’s
description of the furniture of our forefathers
might be written to-day of these articles of Chinese
furniture : —

“Restless was the chair; the back erect
Distressed the weary loins, that felt no ease.”

And his description of one of the kinds of stools
we have already mentioned is also apt : —

“On three legs

Upborne they stood. Three legs upholding firm

A massy stone.”

According to our ideas, Chinese houses are but
scantily furnished. Down both sides of a recep-
tion-room, to flank the opium couch or bed at the
top, will be seen two rows of chairs of Chinese
black ebony, with si high stool -like table in two
storeys between each second chair and the first
of the next couple. These little tables are
conveniently at hand to put cups of tea on,
or the hookah-like pipe in the intervals of
smoking.

Few have had the privilege of living in a purely
native house and being in the native household
as one of the inmhtes ; for East is East and West
is West, and, leaving all matters of food and sanita-
tion out of the question, the greatest forbearance is
needed on both sides not to tread on each other’s

306

Business Life

corns and shock each other’s ideas of decorum and
politeness. Most Europeans would put a question
mark after the word “ privilege ” above, unless
they really wished to get an insight into the inner
life of a Chinese home, and were prepared to
forgo comfort. This mode of entering into
Chinese life is, however, scarcely necessary, as so
much of their life is spent in the open, and is
seen ou,t of doors, that it is not difficult for one
who has studied the Chinese thoroughly to picture
the small remaining portion of their, life unrevealed
from what one knows, and from the echoes that
ones hears of the hidden life. To take lodgings
in a: Chinese house, as one would do in Europe
and America, is impossible, or next to it, and would
be inadvisable, from the European standpoint, for
the reasons given above.

The tradesman, except in the most affluent cir-
cumstances, and as a rule even then, lives in
or above or behind his shop. The mierchant, who
m China is only a shopkeeper on a larger, grander
scale, very possibly does the same. If not, like
his European confrere, he wiU spend the best part
of the day at business. The merchant will often
have shares in half a dozen, a dozen, or more,
separate businesses. To keep a personal super-
vision of all these is impossible, and to hold some
check on them- he will put in a clansman, to keep
some oversight on what goes on in his interests.
Under these conditions it is possible for an un-
scrupulous man, in case of difficulties and a failure

307

Jolm Chinaman Indoors

of the firm, to attempt to deny all responsibilities
connected with the insolvent business, and the fact
that a Chinaman can use several names to represent
himself aids him in his nefarious designs. On the
whole, however, the Chinese are honest business
men.

The mandarin’s office, barracks, court-house,
gaol, and residence are all in the same congeries of
buildings: so he is always at home, and his work
is never done, in the case of high and responsible
officials. He is never out of harness, except for
the nominal period of three years (really twenty-
seven months) of mourning for his parents.
During this period he should have no additions
to his family. This is the only time when the
ceremonial etiquette of Chinese family life sanc-
tions the restriction of the birth-rate. At other
times John Chinaman’s idea is that the more sons
the better, and unfortunately the fewer daughters
still the better.

There is no counterpart to the Londoner’s and
the English city dweller’s exodus to the suburbs
in the evening and into the city in the day. The
country has not yet been discovered in China,
much less the seaside. The Chinaman’s country
is his ancestral home, though it may not be the
country for which our Western wishes long, our
minds dream of, and our eyes behold with visions
of future delight, when in the dusty noisy city
streets. In the ancestral hall are John Chinaman’s
tablets of his ancestors for several generations back

308

The Chief Concern

at the Very least. To this root -place of his clan
he returns when the outside world has been too
hard for him, and in abject poverty he seeks the
help which the ancestral or family funds will afford
him. Religion, social status, support, if necessary,
are all to be found here; and often wife and
family reside here while the chief bread-winner is
at some great mart or distant port, or even abroad
seeking to amass the fortune which, as a rule,
John Chinaman knows so well how to acquire by
his frugal habits, patience, perseverance, and keen
business instincts. The wife is left at this centre, to
minister to the comfort of the parents -in-law ;
for theoretically and practically the old folks at
home are the chief concern. They are not rela-
tives, according to the Chinese idea, but belong
to the innermost circle of human relationships,
more intimate than the outer, ever-expanding
family.

Once or twice a year, if possible, John China-
man goes home to see them. It is to be supposed
that he incidentally sees his wife as well; but that
is not the object of his visit, at least the ostensible
and avowed reason for the journey. At other
times, if distance and labour do not forbid, he
may “ go back to the country,’’ as he calls it. An
occasion that rightly enough would imperatively
demand his I'eturn is as a son, to perform the last
pious rites for his parents.

It would, however, be entirely unnecessary to be
present at his wife's funeral ; nor indeed, for that

309 X

John Chinaman Indoors

matter, is it nec'essary, in some parts of the country,
for him to be present at his own wedding. He
may be too busy, and not be able to get away
to put in an appearance, or it is possible he may
be at the other side of the world; but his mother
can arrange everything for him. No courting,
of course, is necessary; and a barnyard fowl will
act as his to cunt ienens at the marriage feast
and ceremonies. This is one of the things that,
to say the least of it, make it rather awkward for
an English or foreign girl to marry a Chinaman,
as on going home to China she may find a Chinese
girl already installed as chief wife by the old
mother, and, unless the stranger from over the
waters is willing to take her place as second wife,
and be the slave of the mother-in-law and the
drudge of the real wife, ructions are the result.
Thus, once installed, the legitimate, legal wife can-
not be ousted from her position for an outsider,
who would have no status in Chinese family life,
but that of a secondary wife, or so-called
concubine.

It is a tho,usand pities that this phase of Chinese
marital life is not widely known In Europe and
America and our colonies. A Chinaman copies
abroad, and is made much of. Hq is pjerhaps
a’ nice fellow, is making his way in the world, and
is kind and attentive to the English or Australian
girl he is courting. She is infatuated^ and marries
him', knowing nothing of Chinese social life and
customs, and not believing what she is told, should

310

A Warning

any one, knowing what the Chinese marriage
customs are, warn her beforehand. As long as they
remain in Australia or some foreign land all may
go well ; but, naturally enough, sooner or later the
man wants to go home, and, kind and good hus-
band as he may have been, the inexorable laws
of marriage, the customs, with the iron-bound
sanction of ages, cannot be broken through, and
the man feels himself helpless. The girl is dis-
illusioned too late.

These cases are not uncommon. The author
has come across not a few in his official life,
and occasionally had it in his power to render some
slight assistance to the distressed Women; but in
other cases nothing could be done. If there are
children, i.e.^ boys, the matter becomes compli-
cated, as the family, supposing the first wife has
no sons, wish to retain one at least for ancestral
worship, and the author has known stratagems
and tricks resorted to, either to get the child away
from its mother, or to keep it, should the mother
attempt to leave the much-wived household. What
the mother’s feelings are may be imagined without
an attempt at description.

The Chinese offitial appears to long for the
day when he may cease from his arduous labours,
a difficult thing, as there is no age for retirement
— illness, senility, or dismissal being the only means
of retiring into private life. That many long
for this laying down of the, rob^s of state, there
is ample proof in Chinese literature. One pf

311

John Chinaman Indoors

the foremost poets of China verses the wish
thus : —

Would I could

Hie me from my office cares.

By the brooklet then Fd lie,

Catch the finny tribes with snares ;

In my cottage in the wood,

Read my books and dream and think,

Love o’er all the past to brood
And the present with it link.”

The g-entleman at large, if a literary man, finds
enjoyment in his library. The author has a
pleasant memory of visiting a wealthy merchant
of literary and scientific tastes in his country house,
who, amidst edifying conversation, regaled him
and his friend with slight refreshment, the leading
feature in which has fixed itself on the writer’s
memory as a pot of English jam, which was
expected to be taken from the jar by the aid of
a foreign fork.

Meals are the most important part of the day
to a Chinaman. The wise will not in a moment
of urgent haste for the performance of some im-
portant matter, call on a' Chinaman, even though
he be his servant, to forgo the pleasures of the
table, even for a brief season. The two set meals
in the day occupy some of a man’s time, to which
are added an informal lunch, and other pickings
pass some of the hours. His lark, also, requires
a gentleman’s care, to give it some fresh air, though
he may not feel the need of any himself. This

Social Duties

and a chat with friends will move on the slow
wheels of time. Now and then, public' affairs
may come in the day’s work, as those who have
the responsibility of the neighbourhood on their
hands meet in temple or guildhall.

It must not be supposed that an assembly of
this sort is governed by the rules that keep our
public bodies to a strict attention to the business
before them. Yet without the rigid rules framed
for the rapid transaction of business, the work
is done, and well done too, notwithstanding the
leisurely chatting, the drinking of innumerable cups
of tea, smoking of endless pipes, and splitting
of hundreds of melon seeds. Looking after his
large family of wives and children also engrosses
the attention of a man of leisure during many an
hour.

There are no calls on the ladies of the house by
gentlemen. The inner apartments only receive
lady visitors and their children; gentlemen are
only received in the outer apartments by the host
and his sons. The inevitable tea, pipes, and melon
seeds, and sometimes sweets, &c., are produced.
A most ceremonial reception and leave-taking
precede and follow the ceremonious call. The
rank and position of the guest form the guide to
the honour that is to be accorded to him, and the
distance the host has to escort him to his sedan-
chair.

Dinners are not given at home, but at a
restaurant in the town, and, of course, no ladies
of respectability are present.

3^3

John Chinaman Indoors

Chess is thought to be a game for a scholar,
nor is it confined to that class, as the street chair-
coolies may be seen playing while waiting for
hire. Other games are also played. One of the
most common amongst the latter class is nine men’s
morris .

The Chinese man of fortune is fortunate if
gambling has not cast its glamour and infatuation
over him, as his ample means, if not entirely dissi-
pated by it are bound to suffer large encroach-
ments on them. Nearly all Chinese gamble more
or less. Better still if the opium-pipe does not
claim him as its slave, as the chains once fastened
on him are well-nigh impossible to burst, and the
vice soon masters him, demanding, as the habit
grows, more time to be devoted to it, and ruining
his whole life, filching money from his purse, and
when that is emptied, gradually taking his pro-
perty. When that is exhausted, wife and child
sometimes go, to find the means to satisfy the
craving for the drug. At last the man is left an
“ opium ghost,” as the Chinese expressively term
it, for he is but a ghost of what he was, an
emaciated and walking skeleton on the brink of
a dishonoured grave, ready with gaping mouth
to engulf him. Happy, if timely wise, he resolutely
shuns the foe at its first advances.

The women in the house employ themselves with
embroidery, making their sm'all shoes, smoking,
cracking melon seeds, looking after their children
and the ordering of the household. If rich, the

3H

Woman’s Place

oversight of the women -servants and domestic
slave-girls occupies p^rt of their time. The
negotiations for the marriage of their children,
in which the father takbs his full share, is another
engrossing matter. Gossip> playing dominoes and
cards while away some idle hours, and visits to
acquaintance are not forgotten, when, shut up in
closed sedan-chairs, they hurry through the streets,
attended by a woman-servant or slave -girl.
Quarrels are not uncommon between the different
wives.

A feast-day is a gala-day. Theatricals form a
bright interlude; but it is not c'onsidered respect-
able to frequent the theatre. The whole life would
be miserable to our well-educated woman, with
so many interests, not only indoors but out. We
must, however, remember that this narrow life,
with no wide outlook, is what the Chinese lady
has been brought up to, and she knows no other.
Notwithstanding all her disadvantages, many a
Chinese woman is dapable, sensible, and well
fitted to rule her household; but much is wanting,
nevertheless, for her to attain, in the majority of
cases, to the position she should occupy in the
home -life of the nation. This, many of the people
are beginning to realise. Now is the opportunity
for the West to give of its best to the East, and
impart to them the civilising influences of Chris-
tianity,

315

CHAPTER XXIV

JoliB Chinaman at Work

J OHN CHINAMAN is a hard worker — one of
the hardest, all things being taken into con-
sideration, on the face of the earth. An early
riser, he toils on through all the long hours of a
weary summer’s day without a Spanish siesta or
an Englishman’s midday diimer-hour.

Climatic conditions and no weekly day of rest
deny him the intense energy, displayed amongst
some of the world’s labourers, and oftener to be
found in the temperate and rest-giving West ; but
take the Chinese boatman when in full toil, and
the burden-bearing coolies in Canton, and the
incessant hard labour and the strength displayed
are commensurate with any efforts of the West.

Unbraced by a continuous cool climate, as
prevails to a great extent in most European
countries, John Chinaman’s physique is doubtless
loweti than that of many a stout Englishman or
brawny Scot. But see a couple of chair-coolies,
slight in build and short in stature^ lift up a sedan-

31b

A Patient Toiler

chair on their shoulders — no light weight in itself
— and bear it through the heat and burden of a
sweltering day, with the thermometer far up in
the eighties, and rising up even beyond ninety
degrees, in the shade : see all this done amidst
an atmosphere surcharged with moisture, and
your respect for the endurance of John Chinaman
goes up a considerable number of degrees. The
author has had four men carry him rapidly in a
very heavy chair up a steep height of about i,8oo
feet with only one or, two slight rests, and then,
shortly afterwards carry him' down the same
distance on the same road again. Though the
Chinese jinricksha-coolie cannot excel, or perhaps
vie with, his Japanese confrere^ yet he can do a
good spin in the shafts of that vehicle.

John Chinaman is the most patient toiler to be
found on God’s earth. He does not hurry himself,
unless under the weight of a great and heavy
burden. The hustle of the Far West is but little
known in the Far East. Time is of comparatively
little importance to him' ; it is not of the essence
of the contract ; time does not seem to be money.
It is more the distance traversed than the time
taken to do it that forms the basis of the demand
by the chair-coolie or jinricksha -coolie for more
than his legal fare.

Scamping of work is not unknown in the East,
any more than in the West, and here it is that the
Chinese carpenter or bricklayer seems to appreciate
the full value of time for the accumulation of an

317

John Chinaman at Work

uneariied increment of Wages unjustly acquired.
Strict commercial honesty is as common in China]
in the mercantile firm' as the Englishman will
find it in the centres of his own commerce, if it is
not better understood and carried out ; but the
workman’s application of it to wage -earning is
a different story.

Some of the long hours of Chinese toil are more
apparent than real ; for the busy hammer and
anvil of the blacksmith are heard at ten o’clock
at night, and the explanation of this is, that there
are different relays of men employed.

Patient toil, in which time appears to be of
little consequence, and with tools which a Western
workman would think it impossible to do anything
decent with, are the normal conditions of Chinese
labour. There is a want of finish in much of the
work produced by the Chinaman’s primitive tools,
but it is a wonder that, with such rude contrivances
as some of them’ are, he is able to do what he does
so well. On the other hand, some of the work that
goes from his hands is exquisite. Thej carving is
fine, as shown especially in the wood-carving of
curios, black -wood furniture, panels, and the open-
work of the upper part of the French doors that
he delights to put in his buildings, taking the
place of the otherwise plain partitions. The
carving of ivory chess-men, card-cases, &c., of
marble cups, of stone into snuff -bottles and curios,
is all worthy of note.

As an instance of patience’, there is in Chinese
318

Tools

literature the story of one who^, wanting a needle,
ground down a crowbar for the purppse. “A
Chinaman never scorns any kind of drudgery,”
says the author of The Chinese^ as They Are,
“ He feels no scruple as to the honourable pr
dishonourable character of the occupation, but
casts an eye towards the wages stipulated, and
zealously applies himiself to the toil.”

Some of the Chinese tools are very different from
those in use in the West. Hones and whetstones
are used by the carpenter, one being a constant
occupier of his wooden tool -tray ; but if a pair of
scissors or a razor is to be sharpened, they are not
ground with a grindstone, but shaved by a cutting
tool similar to a spoke-shave. Every kind of iron
or steel work is produced in a very rude manner.
The brass padlocks are curious things . The chisels
are rough-looking objects. A plane has a small
stick for a handle, put through a hole prepared
for it at the back part of the body of the plane,
thus requiring the use of both hands. The saw
has its blade generally set at an angle to the handle,
the latter being a framework, forming with the
blade, which is at one side of it, a parallelogram.
A carpenter’s brace and bit are ingenious and
curious ; the former is a stick, with a short dross -
bar at one end for a handle, a loose cord is
attached to it at both ends, and the slack part of
this is twisted round the bit-holder, which can
thus be caused to rotate rapidly, one hand holding
the brace and the other the bit -holder, guiding it

319

John Chinaman at Work

and exerting the requisite amount of pressure
required.

The Chinese scaffold-builders (quite a craft in
itself) are very clever and ingenious. In a land
where at certain seasons of the year the rain
descends in torrents, precautions are necessary to
shield and protect a building while in course of
construction and repair. Not only is a fratnework
of bamboo poles erected round it ; but this is
carried over the roof, and covered with large
oblongs of bamboo -leaves fastened together. No
nails are used in these structures, which are tied
together securely and firmly by long thongs of split
rattan. Under this shelter workmen are secure
from sun and showers. When the work is over
the builders appear again, and, removing the
coverings first, they take down the framework,
using for this purpose short knives to cut through
the rattan.'

Nor are these mat-sheds only used for at protec-
tion for buildings at certain times ; but they are
put up, to house the workmen required on any
particular job, as the building of a house, extensive
repairs, or excavations of earthwork, construction
of roads, the building of tombs, &c., and still
further, many Chinese use them as permanent
residences. Europeans, indeed, occasionally find
them’ convenient for that purpose, as they can
be fitted with wooden doors and windows, &c.,
and they are most useful also when required for a
short time, taking the place of tents and marquees^

320

Building Operations

They are quickly put up, quickly taken down,
and! quickly destroyed if by chance they take
fire. They are largely used by the Chinese for
theatres.

Instead of employing a long ladder to ascend
to the roof of a house to execute repairs, the
Chinese appear to prefer to make a temporary
ladder of bamboo poles against the house. The
scaffold-builders are in constant demand, and most
useful their work is for steeples and towers.
Temporary bridges are made in the same way,
with bamboo poles and boards laid for the flooring.
Little wharves are also constructed in the same
manner. One constantly sees in Hong Kong an
inclined plane of such material, leading up from
the street to the upper, storey of a house where a
death has occurred, to allow the passage of the
heavy coffin through a window down iirto the
street.

An immense number of operations are carried
on in China with man-power, as steam-power is
only beipg introduced of late in railways, steamers,
&c. Horse-power would form no unit of calcula-
tion to a Chinese, for horses are unknown, and
Manchurian ponies are but little used, in immense
tracts of that great Empire. In the south, where
a few are seen, they serve as carriers of military
mandarins, who ride on them, and the servants
of great civil officials also use them for the same
purpose. The only animal used for traction in the
south is the water-buffalo, which draws the prfini-

321

John Chinaman at Work

tive plough through the Chinaman’s fields, and
also turns the oil -mill, &c. Man is the pack-horse,
man is the carrier of burdens of every kind and
of every material. Man burdens himself with his
fellow-man in a more literal sense than with us.
With oar, track -line, and pole, ma.n has moved
millions of boats and vessels fot thousands of
years, in a land where boats are used for every
conceivable object, thankful when favourable wind
and tide give him relspite from active toil, and all
that is necessary is a hand on the tiller and the
sheets of the wide-spread sail. Man with an
endless pump raises water by using his feet on
treadmill-like steps rotating floats within a
trough and so dragging up the water from
the river to irrigate his rice-fields. And in
his boats which carry fish to the market,
his feet acting on the same principle, bring
in a; supply of fresh water to the fish in the
tanks.

Applying the same method he takes the place
of a steam-engine in some of the passage-boats
on the Canton River, which proceed rapidly on
their voyages, relays of men working the stem-
wheel and so providing the motive power ; the
boats might be fitly described not as of so much
horse -power but of so many men -power. In this
connection it may be interesting to note that
jinricksha means man -power carriage.

Most ingenious are the ivory-carvers, who
employ a number of small chisels, either leyel at

322

The Right to Work

the edge or slanting on one side to a point. Some
have a projecting tooth upon one side, in order
to unidercut the figures. “The workman holds
the object in his left hand, and scrapes away the
ivory with his right. He resorts to no means
for abridging the labour of his task.” Some of the
most curious objects produced by them' are con-
centric ivory balls, one being within the other and
all carved, even the innermost ones . This is
done by tools being introduced through the
holes of the carvings of the outer balls .
This example is enough to show what infinite
care and trouble Chinese workmen take in their
work.

Nearly every Chinaman believes in the right
to work, and the ntajority find the right work to
do, though it may be almost unremunerative.
Numerous as are the occasions for a procession
in China:, there are none of the imemployed, crying
their lugubrious strain of “ WeVe got no woirk
to do ” ; that is left to the beggars, and even
they work diligently and unceasingly at their
employment of soliciting alms. The inherently
vicious take up the work of highway robbery and
piracy, to which often the otherwise honest have
been driven by floods or famines.

It has been recently stated that in England
13,000,000 persons “are living within a week of
want, and are habitually underfed and insufficiently
clothed.” It is impossible to say how many millions
of China’s teeming population are in a similar

• 323

John Chinaman at Work

position ; but that there are vast multitudes of
them in such a condition there cannot be a shadow
of doubh ^ud yet^ except when a flood or famine
upsets the ordinary state of affairS;, they manage
to keep soul and body togethen and continue the
race.

The solidarity of labour is evinced by the
ubiquitous guilds which not only gathers all the
otherwise scattered members of one handicraft
under its aegis, but bristles with enmity against
all who try to impugn its authority and crushes
them by its power. A system' of apprenticeship
is in existence, during the years of which the lad
becomes proficient in his calling. The guilds are
financed by the subscriptions of the craftsmen,
fines, &c. They subscribe liberally to charitable
purposes.

Theoretically to work with the hands is the
most honourable of all callings in China, next to
that which claims the pre-eminence — that of
working with the brain, viz., the scholar. After
the literati come the agriculturists, and this
means the man who has a small holding. In
China one does not see farm|s hundreds of ^cres
in extent. A Chinese acre, a mow^ is less than
the sixth of an English one.

A farmer is really a market-gardener, though
he grows rice and other crops. His fields are
neat and beautiful, with the regular and clean
rows of vegetables — not a weed is to be seen.
Morning and night, with his two large buckets

324

Small Culture

hanging to a pole across his shoulders, in a half^
trot he runs up the hollows between the ridges, and
showers down the miniature rain from these primi-
tive watering-pots. There is no rose, only a slit
cut across the long bamboo tube which rises from
each bucket, and a broad jet of water spurts out
from them. He is busy, too, with his buckets
of liquid night-soil diluted with water, which he
ladles out on the growing crops ; he appears to
have no olfactory nerves, as he carries on his
nauseous task. The earliest dawn finds him at his
work ; but soon after five or six o’clock in the
evening the fields are deserted. Then he hies him
home to his hovel-like abode in the little hamlet
or village, for lonely farm-houses scattered here
and there over the country-side are unknown in
China.

Safety is in numbers, though even robberies and
armed assaults on villages are not unknown A
single house would be liable to a raid on it. In
river-travel the boats are glad at night to stop
at a village, or where several others have put up
till daylight.

The emerald-green of the rice-fields is a beau-
tiful sight, as the tender shoots rise from: their
watery bed. Later on they put on a corn -golden
hue. The most untidy fields are those of the
sweet potatoes, which grow on sandy soil. The
creepers of this spread over the ridges and en-
croach on the hollows between.

The farmer’s tools are most primitive ; his

325 Y

John Chinaman at Work

plough^ harrow, and mattocks were brought with
him from the cradle of the race, and evidently have
not been altered since. His winno wing-machine,
simple in construction, has been copied in Europe,
it is said. The mattock is used largely in agri-
cultural operations. In working it is lifted high
above the head and brought down with force, and
the impetus of its descent sends it well into the
soil. The spade is but little used.

Thriftiness under the hard taskmaster of limited
means is perhaps carried as far, if not farther,
than amongst any people. The endurance of the
Chinese coolie is great. The coal-coolies coaling
a vessel work hard and carry in the usual Chinese
manner the two baskets of coal, slung to a pole, up
the narrow gangway planks in a continual stream
and empty them down into the bunkers. The
earth-coolies, like ants, carry the excavated earth
in continuous lines, one with full baskets, the other
with empty ones returning for another load. Thus
a: cutting is made for a railway, or foundations
for buildings, or reclamation work is carried on.
In Hong Kong it is a sight to see the traffic
of these coolies on the road. There are about
150 houses in the Peak district of the colony at
heights of from 1,000 to 1,800 feet above the
sea-level, including a large hotel and two barracks.
All the material for these buildings, whether timber,
brick, or tiles, has been carried by men, women,
and children up a steep road, much of it in a
hot, broiling sun. The stone for retaining walls

326

Cheerful Toilers

and foundations was obtained on the heights them-
selves, but this likewise was carried by men to
the site required.

The children begin early at this hard labour,
taking a few bricks in the bamboo slings sus-
pended to the two ends of the pole, and, like
Milo with the calf, as they grow in strength the
burden increases, till between thirty and forty
bricks can be carried at each end of the carrying
pole. Two journeys are sometimes made in the
day with these loads, while most would think that
a simple walk up and down without any burden
was quite enough, if not too much, on a hot day.
Not only are these twO' journeys taken, but the
houses in which these coolies herd are often a
mile or two away from their work.

A not uncommon thing for Chinese when carry-
ing heavy objects a long distance is to take two
loads ; they start with one, and before long put
it down at the side of the road, and' go back
for the other, keeping up this alternate carrying
of the two till the end qf the journey is reached.
Thus a rest is obtained between each carry. With
the perspiration pouring down his naked back,
or barefoot in keenly cold weather, and nothing
on his legs but a ragged pair of old cotton
trousers, the Chinese coolie makes the best of life.
“ He earns whate’er he can ” with a habitual readi-
ness to labour. He can wash his own clothes ;
his wardrobe is small ; he can cook his own
dinner ; he is happy and contented, and makes

327

John Chinaman at Work

the best of everything, joking and laughing, and
seldom quarrelling with any one.

Everything that surrounds him is conducive to
the expenditure of the least to produce results
commensurate to his needs. Even his enjoyments,
barring the vices of gambling and opium-smoking,
are on a reasonable scale. A mountain streamlet,
if in the country, provides him with some cool
water to rinse out his mouth when thirsty (not
much cold water is drunk in China). Some one
has placed an old bowl ready at hand to catch
the water as it trickles out of the rock, si little
stall under some shady tree has laid on it cups
of amber-coloured tea, a few cakes, and fruit,
any and all of which may be had for the expendi-
ture of a few cash. His breakfast he has had
before leaving home, and his dinner he will have
after his day’s work is over. He carries his pipe
and tobacco with him, and has ai whiff or two out
of its tiny bowl every now and then, or buys a
few cigarettes for a few cash from a stall, and
one or two may be stuck above his ear, ready
for a smoke when wanted. Sometimes he carries
a few cash in his ear. His amusements are not
many : he can always chat to his heart’s content,
and laugh and joke to any extent with others
like-conditioned as himself. The theatre, with its
entrancing scenes of historic story or broad farce,
can be enjoyed for a mere trifle.

It does not seem much toi live for ; a narrow
horizon, the limitations great ; and yet he enjoys

328

Happy though Poor

life— one feels almost inclined to say, to the full.
He starts it with a knowledge of how to be happy,
though single, and he has scarcely learned that
when his mother puts him into the position of
“ how to be happy though married.” If any one
has solved the problem of how to be happy though
poor, it is John Chinaman, and in many instances
he soon rises tO: the position of trying whether
he can be happy though rich.

A people capable of the minute care and atten-
tion, patient industry, and never-relenting toil
shown in their carvings are the same who have
constructed some of the wonders of the world,
as all these powers of application and endurance
ensure, when once commenced, the completion of
great undertakings. An example of this is the
Great Wall, 1,500 miles long, along the northern
boundaries, which took ten years to construct . The
Roman Wall of Britain pales into insignificance
beside this enormous rampart, which, as one writer
has remarked, would extend from Portugal to
Naples. Nor is this the only wall of this kind.
Dr. Stein, the explorer, has recently found remains
of others, the existence of which had been for-
gotten. The Grand Canal is another monument
to John Chinaman’s persevering toil— an enterprise
which reflects far more credit upon the monarchs
who devised and executed it than does the Great
Wall ; and if the time in which it was dug, and
the character of the princes who planned it be
considered, few works can be mentioned in the

329

John Chinaman at Work

history of any country more admirable and use-
ful. When originally constructed, there was
uninterrupted water communication by its means
for nearly the whole length of the Empire.

330

CHAPTER XXV

What John Chinaman Believes

D EEP-ROOTED in all his thoughts and
feelings, John Chinaman enshrines the
ghosts of those who gave him birth. These
spirits he fears always, even if he reverences
them and desires their welfare ; for he believes
that on their comfort and goodwill depends his
well-being.

Besides these the world is filled with good and
evil spirits, for he does not confine his mental
vision to what his physical sight reveals to him',
but allows his fancies full play in what has been
described as “ the dim mysterious region beyond
our present range of thought.” John Chinaman,
however, fully peoples this region with very sub-
stantial shadows who roam in this upper world.
There are hungry ghosts amongst them for whom,
in his charity, as they have nO' relatives to care
for them, he provides a feast once a year. These
ghostly feasts— whether for his own ancestors or
for famished starveling spirits, by rights belong-
ing to others, or for his gods, consist O'f the

331

What John Chinaman Believes

sublimated essences of solid food and drink, which
by some subtle mysterious manner serve to feed
with their invisible elements the invisible beings.
The hunger of the ghosts provided for, man, in
the persons of the offerer and his family, can
fall on what they have left. According to John
Chinaman, all are satisfied, and, viewed from his
standpoint, it is a most satisfactory proceeding,
for not only are the ghosts fed but, except for
the drink offerings, some of which may be poured
out on the ground, what has been offered, un-
diminished in quantity, serves as a feast for the
living.

Besides libations poured on the ground, smoking
candles have flared and guttered in the wind or
on the quiet altar, and the fragrant savour of
incense floated in the air. Joss paper has also
been changed to ashes, and somehow or other
penetrated into the spirit-world, transformed, so
John Chinaman believes, by the process, the unreal
into the real, the shadow into the substance, the
tinsel into silver and gold, by the sublimating
effects of the fire. Paper and bamboo models
of boats likewise are burned, and in the same
way become boats fit to stem the floods of Hades.
Sedan-chairs and carriages, and even servants, all
made of paper and bamboo, are thus sent to
relatives and friends and all who have died.
Equally flimsy miniature houses are transformed
into gorgeous substantial mansions in the Elysian
Fields ; paper garments, patterns of the real, into

332

Spirits and Deities

warm clothing for naked spirits. Thus fed,
housed, clothed, nourished, and every want pro-
vided for, including even mock cash, juggled
somehow into real coin to buy in the next world
what he has omitted to send from this, John
Chinaman is satisfied that hell’s evils are over-
come, and heaven resounds with praise and
enhanced joy, more especially as he has doubtless
also spent substantial money on priests, monks,
and nuns, to say masses to release the departed
from the pains of hell.

Besides these spirits of the departed, the world
is peopled with beings who but seldom' reveal
themselves to the eye of flesh. Spirits reside in
the wide-spreading banyan-trees in the temple-
yard and at the corners of the bridges, and are
remembered with offerings. Some of the former
worthies of earth are now worthier than ever, as
they have been entrusted with different functions
of Nature. Fire is ruled over by the God of
Fire, who was the wick or flame of a lamp in
a temple for long ages, imtil finally he attained
to the sanctity of a temple and shrine for himself.
A midwife in Canton, who lived a century or two
ago, has been deified as the patron saint of women
at the most critical period of their lives. A famous
general in feudal China nearly seventeen hundred
years ago is now the God of War. All the
forces of Nature have gods presiding over them.

Down in the pearly depths of the Yellow or
China Sea sits in a palace of delight the Ocean

333

What John Chinaman Believes

Dragon King, who sends the rain, mounting the
sky and riding on the clouds, spouting out the
showers as they fall. His duty is assigned him,
and the precise quantity he is to send, the measure
of his floods of blessings being fixed by the
inexorable decrees and commands of the Gem-
meous Ruler, the Supreme Ruler over gods and
demons in the Taoist hierarchy of gods. This
same Dragon King of the Ocean Depths lost his
head once for disobedience ; for he sent more
rain than ordered for the purpose of falsifying
the predictions of a soothsayer, and was beheaded
in consequence.

The sailor, especially the rough and rugged
Fokienese navigator, puts his faith in a goddess
who, while in the flesh, and sitting at her spinning-
wheel, fell one day into a trance-like sleep, and
her spirit leaving her body rode on the storm,
and rescued her father and one brother from the
deep. She would have succeeded in towing her
other brother’s boat out of danger as well, had
it not been that her mother waked her, and the
thread in her mouth, which was the tow-line
attached to the bows of the subsequently wrecked
vessel, snapped, and her brother was drowned.

The women venerate especially the virgin
Goddess of Mercy, the daughter, centuries ago,
of an Indian king, who withstood all attempts to
force her into marriage. Biting her finger, she
extinguished, with the blood which spurted out, the
flames in the palace which were lit to coerce her

334

Ghosts and Demons

into yielding or being destroyed. The personi-
fication of tender mercy, on her visit to Hades
she pitied the poor wretches being punished, and
poured some of the precious dew or holy water
from her vase, and thus eased a poor soul being
brayed in a mortar. This and kindred actions
called out a vigorous protest on the part of the
officials of the Lower Regions in favour of justice
being done and punishment being allowed to con-
tinue, as the recompense of evil deeds. Like the
Buddhas — for she is a Buddha also — she sits on
a lotus as a throne ; an infant is often on one
arm, or sitting in her lap. Her sublime grace
has charmed the demon who stands on her right,
and made him a slave of compassionate love. Her
pity and loving-kindness are vouchsafed to all ;
for she hears with compassion the prayers of those
who are in distress.

But the hosts of the unseen are iimumerable.
Nearly every house-door has pasted on it the
figures of two ancient generals, who guarded an
emperor from the disturbance of evil, noisy spirits,
and who are therefore trusted in by all for a
similar purpose now ; for evil ghosts and demons
are everywherie. They rush along the streets, if
a straight course is allowed them, and so, to
prevent this, turns and comers are made in the
narrow streets, much to the inconvenience of all,
as well as of the bad spirits, and houses also
jut out to obstruct their course. To prevent their
loitering at these comers stones are set up or

335

What John Chinaman Believes

let into the wall, with the awful wotds on them,
“A stone ftom the Tie Mountain,” and, aghast,
the ghosts sweep round the corner.

The benign God of the Locality, often with
his wife, sits in a shrine at many a street corner ;
for the evil spirits of the English public-houses
do not infest these spots in the Chinese streets.
Shrines and altars to these tutelary spirits abound.
At each shop-front, in the end of the counter
which separates part of the shop from the street,
a little niche is seen in the stone- or brick-work,
and in it on red paper or a board can be read
an inscription which bears the name of the God
of Wealth ; for the Chinese are honest in acknow-
ledging that they worship wealth. Many in the
West do likewise, but will not allow that they
do. This inscription is often an invocation to
riches to come and bless the shopkeeper ; incense
night and morning is lighted before this, and
offerings often made. Another shrine is in che
shop itself, where also incense is his service, as.
well as other acknowledgments of the god’s
presence.

A list of Chinese gods and deities would be
long, and never complete, as new ones are con-
stantly being added to the number ; and what
would serve for one part of the country would
not be appropriate to another. The gods have
come down to the Chinese in the form of men,
or rather men have risen to the heavens in the
form of gods, for nearly all the deified heroes

33 ^

Comprehension

or saints have had a human history, either ancient
or modem.

The popular belief is that the spirit of the god
takes up its abode in the conventional image
which man prepares for his dwelling, after the
service of instalment and induction, which is signi-
fied by a vermilion dot on the eye. If a temple
is to be repaired, thfe gods ate asked to take
themselves away until all is ready for their return,
when they are invited back. It seems altogether
very much like grown-up people playing at dolls,
only it is in real earnest, and not make-believe,
and the people are dominated by the fear of these
gods which they have highly exalted to this regal
state to rule the destinies of man from' that high
eminence conferred on them by theit worshippers.

The system of Buddhist philosophy has pandered
to the human cry of the lowly dwellers on earth
who felt unable to scale the icy heights of the
philosophical self -negation of the Indian reformer.
Buddhism has taken under, her wing, in worldly
wisdom and eclectic selection, many an idol, and
hatched many a belief entirely incompatible with
her original tenets of belief. With the toletance
of all beliefs, typical of the ordinary Chinese mind,
Taoism often shares in the same shrine of the
human heart, and its gods are also sometimes
companions in the same material fane, and with
them primus inter pares sits Confucius, the Sage
of All Ages.

Temples abound containing a pantheon of
337

What John Chinaman Believes

Buddhist or Taoist gods. In the former a trinity
of the Three Precious Buddhas is enshrined in
the place of honour ; representing in the exoteric
form of the faith the esoteric beliefs of the three
most precious things of the Buddhist belief, vary-
ing in different fanes, as different views are held
as to the pre-eminence of the component elements
of the faith. Gaudama’s followers are likewise
deified— -first, i8, the most common number, then
500, and even 10,000. Numerous other Buddhist
saints and even demi-gods taken over from primi-
tive beliefs share the main buildings of the temples,
or the side chapels.

The same holds good of Taoism, which has
created a trinity of its own, to vie with Buddhism,
though, like it, it has sunk from a system of philo-
sophy to one of idolatry. In a Taoist temple, if
large, may sometimes be seen a hall set apart
for the images of the threescore beings who are
supposed to preside over the sixty years of the
Chinese sexagenary cycle. Then in the city temple
will be seen in the cloisters of its outer compart-
ments scenes representing the Ten Courts of Hades,
each with its judge, and lictors, as on earth,
torturing poor wretches for the peccadilloes of
killing insects, as well as for more flagrant sins
and crimes. Hades is modelled on earth.

Then, besides the larger temples and monas-
teries, smaller temples are scattered all over the
cities, towns, and villages, and even along the
country roads, almost as thick as public-houses

33S

SHANG

Temples and Idols

are in England. Ancestral halls also abound,
where the tablets of the deceased parents a,re set
up for worship.

Now and then some defunct member of the
human race is canonised by public opinion, and
from! some wonder-working miracle, or cure,
believed in by the credulous people, or from' an
answer to some petition or prayer, takes his or her
hold on the superstitious minds, and public estiml^-
tion soon grows in the new idoFs favour. First
a small wayside shrine serves as a mark of esteem
in which the new-found saint is held ; but as
popularity increases a small temple rises to displace
it, until eventually, as the years roll by, a larger
fane appears, and other gods find shrines in it,
and other subsidiary buildings grow up round
it. Worshippers appear on the saint’s day in great
multitudes, crowding the courts and thronging the
approaches.

The idol’s birthday is the equivalent of the
saints’ days in Roman Catholic countries. Strange
to say, the author knows of one city where it does
not fall on the same day at the two or three
temples dedicated to the worship of a particular
goddess.

Large incense-sticks are sometimes brought
home by the women-folk after a visit to the
temple. A roaring trade is done in candles,
incense, &c. At one temple in Hong Kong, and
the same happens elsewhere, on and about the
time of the saintly birthday, booths of matting

339

What John Chinaman Believes

arise for the sale of these accessories of heathen
worship^ to disappear when the short season is
over.

Monasteries and nunneries are found in the
land : the former more often in wooded glen by
the banks of some bubbling mountain brook, and
here pilgrims resort, combining a love of Nature
with the exercise of religious observances. Monas-
teries are also found in busy cities, as well as
convents. Both monks and nuns are held in very
little estimation by the Chinese.

Buddhism and Taoism have seen their best days
in China. To a great extent they are decadent
faiths. The Chinese are ready to accept a belief
in anything strange. The attitude they appear
often to take is, that it may be well to take the
chance of something proving useful and worthy
of belief. Hence the religious belief of John
Chinaman is a conglomerate one : a dash of
Nature worship, in many of its numerous develop-
ments, and the cult of ancestor worship. Most of
the Old World’s primitive beliefs are to be traced
in survivals in China — a traditional belief in the
Supreme Ruler, a providence typified by heaven
and earth, and on all this is superimposed the
idolatrous systems of Buddhism and Taoism, which
have opened the way for a gross mass of super-
stition.

As to his ordinary beliefs, apart from his
religious feelings, one will find a counterpart in
the absurd theories and utterly erroneous oninions

340

strange Objects

held in our own lands some few centuries ago.
What at times most unfortunately affects foreign
intercourse in an impleasant manner, is the ascrib-
ing of the most astounding powers to the foreigner
who penetrates into China. Wie appear strange
objects to the unsophisticated native, with our blue
eyes (or green, as he calls them), red hair, and
white faces. He believes us so wonderfully
equipped as to be able to see into the solid earth
and discover hidden treasures. He further believes
that we can and do take the dark eyes out of
Chinese babies, whom we murder for that purpose,
and make wonderful sight-seeing preparations with
them. In proof of this are the skeletons found in
our hospitals, and the graves of foundlings buried
in orphanages established by. foreigners ; for
Chinese infants do not receive decent interment
amongst the natives.

CHAPTER XXVI

New Life in Old China

C HINA awoke the other day after a Rip van
Winkle sleep of centuries to realise that she
who had been first would soon be last in the
march of the nations. She had been the leading
Power in the Far East. Nations near and far
sought her smile, or trembled at her frown. Her
commerce spread far and wide in her own vessels
and penetrated to the farthest parts of their then
known world. Her armies subdued the neighbour-
ing nations, and even carried war to the borders of
India. Her civilisation became that of the Far
Eastern world ; for her near neighbours based
their letters, their literature, their art on China’s.
Her inventions preceded similar revelations to
master-minds in the West, or in some cases may
even have given hints to the West, and in others
gradually spread through the East to the West.
Her sages preached the highest morality known to
many a nation, and were accepted as the teachers
of neighbouring peoples. Her priests travelled to
the distant land of India in the interests of what

342

The Old Style

they considered a better faith, to learn more fully
of it, and bring back its sacred books and relics,
and then passed on the knowledge they had
acquired to Japan and other countries receptive
of the faith.

At last the inexorable decrees of Fate seemted
to thunder forth that iron fetters should confine
her thoughts in the channels prepared for them
in antiquity. Her scholars glided down the Stream
of Time, content to rest on the achievements of
the past. Age at the prow and Old Custom' at the
helm. The glorious fabric of knowledge and learn-
ing, the foundations of which had been laid with
such honour, and bid fair to be the cynosure of
all eyes, developed no further than a “ crypt of
the Past.”

What was, has been, is now, and ever shall
be, world without end — ^that was the creed. As
the women’s feet were bound in bandages, and lost
their power of free and healthy action, so the minds
of the men were “ cribbed, cabined^ confined,”
by the tight fetters of iron-bound custom', of age-
old antiquity, and unfitted for the free stepping out
on the path of progress. China was a valley of
dry bones, bleached by the apathy of ages. “ Son
of man, can these dry bones live? ” The bois-
terous gales of the north, the softer winds of the
west have blown, and at last there is a stirring,
as the Zeitgeist has penetrated these remotest parts
of the earth.

Why this state of things? What had served in
343

New Life in Old China

ages past was thought fit for ages to come. Glory
and honour and power had all come from what had
been tried and had not been ft)und wanting.
Why, when the foundations of the Empire had
stood strong on it ; when the eminence of the
Empire had resulted from it ; when the submission
of nations had been its reward — should it not be
the hope and salvation of the future? All round
this Central Empire of civilisation were inferior
peoples and nations ; barbarians, many of them,
with no fixed abodes — nomads with no written lan-
guage or literature, savage and wild.

When from beyond the Western Seas men of
stranger tribes arrived, like ghosts in appearance,
in strange ships, with apparently no manners, who
tore up the printed page and misused the written
leaf, they apparently were other barbarians, ready
with tribute for the Son of Heaven, and should be
treated as such, and if perfectly submissive allowed
to depart, their tribute -bearing mission over. But
these strangers asserted their independence ; they
determined to stay and trade, they insisted on their
equality to, if not superiority over, the civilised
Chinese. Such presumption, such arrogance, could
not be tolerated or endured for a moment. They
must be kept in check and ruled with 0 , strong
hand. If his Imperial Majesty allowed them to
remain, the regulations laid down for their
guidance must be rigidly adhered to.

An increasing trade was carried on with this
stranger within their gates. Restricted on every

344

Foreign Concessions

hand and hampered in their operations, the foreign
(English) merchant gained a foothold in the
Chinese Empire at the point of the sword, and
Hong Kong became a British colony. Foreign guns
also opened the way for settlements at the treaty
ports, which were increased gradually, having been
gained first by force of arms and latterly by
diplomacy ; thus treaty port followed treaty port,
extorted from the Chinese, till now they are begin-
ning to open them themselves. The Portuguese
had already established themselves at Macao, now
more than three centuries ago.

Different nations had concessions at Shanghai,
Hankow, Tientsin, and elsewhere. Russia was
creeping in from the north, taking slice after slice
of the northern possessions of the Empire. Then
she reached a hand down and grasped Port
Arthur. England followed suit with Weihaiwei.
Then other nations wished to continue the grab-
bing. Italy wanted a port in Fukien. China
gasped at the demands made on her for territory.
Japan had already taken Formosa in war, and John
Chinaman at last had the courage to say “No ! ’*
The spoilers agreed to spoil no more, but to
preserve the Empire intact. Japan and China had
come to blows, and the “ monkey race,” as John
Chinaman insolently called the Japanese, his neigh-
bours, had beaten him, to the surprise of the world.

Japan saw that if Russia once succeeded in her
designs on the sovereignty of China, and engulfed
Manchuria and took Korea, she might tremble in

345

New Life in Old China

her shoes for her own kingdom, so exerting her-
self, drove her enemy out of Port Arthur,
recovering it for the Chinese. This staggered
the world, and China wondered, and pondered deep
the lesson.

All this time another secret silent conquest of
China had been going on, despised by many, over-
looked by others, almost ignored, disdained by
the majority of the Celestials, wrapped up as they
were in their pride and conceit. The missionaries,
besides their direct evangelistic labours, had been
busy in producing geographies, arithmetics, works
on science, by the hundreds and thousands, and
teaching them in their schools. A few others also
assisted in bringing Western knowledge to the
Chinese. Thus many minds were being prepared
for what was to come. There were two factors at
least, if there were not others, ready to combine
and act as leverage on the fulcrum of the Japanese
victories over the West and rouse China from her
inertia of ages. If Japan could conquer a Western
nation by the application of a Western army and
navy, why could not China rise to the occasion,
and, copying Japanese methods, learn from the
West to keep the West at bay? So said some of
China’s progressives.

A wave of patriotism burst forth from the cave
of the Western winds. Latent in the Chinese
character, buried for ages in petty provincial
jealousies, stifled, this patriotism has risen stagger-
ing like a drunkard, drunk from the sleep of ages,

346

Rapid Changes

striking out sometimes blindly for home and
country^ unreasoning in its uncertain course ; but,
sobering, it* will ere long use its strength aright.
China moves at last ; but its new life has been
won with birth-throes, and more than one Chinese
patriot has died in the struggle, and others have
suffered.

The late Chinese Emperor, in the hands of an
ardent reformer, was rapidly hastening progress,
perhaps too rapidly, when the reactionary forces
awoke, and all but crushed him in their anger.
Slower progress has been the order of the day
since then ; for China was scarcely prepared for
such drastic changes as were then being in-
augurated. Now the whole air is quivering with
change. It has not always been steady progress :
contradictory edicts have been issued ; now a
promise of change has been rescinded ; now an
order has not been obeyed ; but the general
trend has been a progressive one. The latest
phase is the rising of the Chinese against the
Manchus for liberty, freedom, and a good govern-
ment. Too much has been done, one would
fain hope and ardently believe, to render retro-
gression possible. That there may be checks
here and there may be taken for granted ; but
the clock cannot be set back permanently. The
mainspring of Chinese official life — its unique
educational system— is being remodelled through-
out the Empire. The exanrination halls of bygone
ages, where generations have sat for the com-

347

New Life in Old China

petitive examinations, have been taken down, and
in their place normal schools have been erected.
The Confucian classics are being ousted, their place
being taken by modern text-books of knowledge
and science.

The antiquated modes of travel are being gradu-
ally changed. The process has been going on
for, a number of years past, and it is all the
better that it should not dislodate and throw into
confusion, rebellion, and distress those who have
earned their living by the old methods. The new
and the old are still to be seen together. First came
the fine American river steamers on the Canton
River and the Yangtse, and ocean-going steamers
navigated the China Seas as soon, or even before
that. An American firm’s fleet of steamers was
purchased years ago and added to, and they have
run up and down the coast under a Chinese com-
pany’s flag and the Yellow Dragon flag, with
foreign captains and officers. This is the largest
enterprise of the kind engaged in ; but numerous
single or small steamers are Chinese-owned, run-
ning mainly on inland waters, and hundreds of
small steam-launches ply up and down the
numerous rivers and waterways of China. These
are manned entirely by Chinese. They are built
and engined also by Chinese shipbuilding and
engineering firms, which have sprung up for the
purpose in the last few years.

One sees the whole transition process as it
appears to be, though perhaps not really alto-

34S

Transition

gather such, in operation : there is the imitation
of a stern-wheeler in the tread-mill man-driven
passage-boat ; there is the steam-launch which
carries passengers ; there is the steam-launch
which tows one of the old-fashioned passage-boats
crowded with passengers — all on the Canton River.
The last arose from the opposition of mandarins ;
but it is doubtless useful nowadays, from the
immense number which can be carried on the
passage-boat.

Apart from what has happened in Peking, be-
ginnings have been made in one or two other
places to make the roads and streets wider ; but
a' whole broadening and relaying of thoroughfares
will be necessary before anything in the shape
of vehicular tralBc can penetrate the narrow lanes
and alleys that serve for streets in most Chinese
cities. A broad carriage-road has for some years
been open for traffic in Nanking, the ancient capital
of China. In Canton a bund, or embankment
as it is called in England, is being constructed
along the north bank of the river ; and this is surely
a remarkable evidence of progress.

Railways are being constructed (see “ How John
Chinaman Travels and where introduced are
largely made use of by the Chinese.

Matches have driven out the old-fashioned flint
and steel. It was first Swedish matches which
were imported in large numbers ; then Japan
poured them into the country ; and now China
is beginning to make them herself. The demand

349

New Life in Old China

for them is great. The old shallow saucer of oil,
or tumbler with a layer of oil on the top of
water, and the rush wick, are fast going before
the kerosene lamp, and that has not entirely ousted
it before the electric light has established itself
ill the streets and shops of some of the large
cities.

The enlightened statesman and poet So Toong^
poh spoke centuries ago of bringing a water-supply
into the city of Canton, instead of relying on
wells and the river ; but it needed the stimulus
of contact with the West to bring the old dream
to a reality. The author some two or three years
ago saw water-pipes being laid under the streets
in the black filth of the sewers for this purpose.
Already for some years overground water-pipes,
to convey water from the river at Canton to ex-
tinguish fires, have been laid in the streets of
that city, the water being pumped into them when
necessary by steam-power from the stations on
the river-banks built for that purpose. Previous
to this the public wells in the streets afforded
the supply to the small manual fire-engines used.

Shops after the Western style are beginning
to appear, filled with modern books, such as trans-
lations into Chinese of scientific works as well
as of novels. These shops are appearing cheek
by jowl with the old shops, stored with the old
material for acquiring Celestial lore.

A newspaper press has been created, which is
progressive in all of its tendencies, widely read, and

350

Mewspapers

which will doubtless be more and more an exponent
of the wishes and feelings of the people. True
it is that China, as in so many things, took the
lead (in the Peking Gazette^ of other nations in
the issue of a daily sheet of Government news ;
it is not a newspaper in the modem acceptation
of the term, but a Government gazette. The
modern newspaper press of China has been most
rapid in its growth, till now many cities have their
newspaper, and others boast of not a few. The
illustrated paper in pamphlet fortn has also made
its appearance ; and a wise proceeding on the
part of ,a few newspapers is the publication of
a portion— and of the whole paper in one or two
cases — in the everyday speech of the people.
Where formerly it was simply the educated people
of the provinces who took in a copy of a reprint
of the Government gazette, now it is a common
sight to see a local paper in the hands of the
ordinary shopkeeper and of the porter in a firm.
Wherever one looks one sees the beginning of
a new life in old China.

Notice has already been called in the chapter
on education to the new life which young John
Chinaman is growing up into, with the new ideas
and ideals of life and its purposes given him in
the new schools, which have sprung up all over
the Empire.

It will be a pity, with all this material progress,
if China copies the example of the, West in having
enormous armies and navies. Two small navies

351

New Life in Old China

have been destroyed in recent wars ; but another
is in contemplation^ and numerous mosquito gun-
boats may be seen lying at anchorage belonging
to provincial authorities, and in time the old-
fashioned war- junks will be a thing of the past.
There is a large nucleus of a foreign-trained army
ready for development into China’s standing army :
so that the supersession of the old native army is
being gradually accomplished.

New police forces have been formed, to take
the place of the effete bodies of soldiers whose
duty it was to undertake such work in the past.

And, best sign of all in the present uplift of
China, the moral sense of the nation is now assert-
ing itself in the determination to put an end to
the insidious vice of opium-smoking : both the
Government and the best sense of the people are
at one in the matter ; and those qualified to judge
believe that it will be done.

One of China’s foremost statesmen is desirous
of doing away with polygamy, which is responsible
for much evil in China. To begin with, it gives
to the Chinese a loose idea of the proper relation-
ships of the sexes ; it produces no end of discord
in family life ; it demands from the official classes
a disproportionate expenditure and it keeps woman
in a low position.

The moral sense of the nation should rise against
polygamy, which is believed to be responsible,
amongst the other evils already named, for much
of the bribery and corruption, as the large families

352

Reforms Needed

it entails requires officials to obtain the money
for their maintenance in some way or other.

The first steps towards a parliament have been
taken, and have met with great success. Constitu-
tional government will also soon fallow.

Much remains to be done. Only a beginning
has been made as yet. Amongst some of the
reforms that are clamant are the following :
Adequate remuneration of officials should be pro-
vided, so as to make it possible for the mandarin
to rule in equity, without the almost irresistible
temptation to accept bribes and pervert justice,
and to render it unnecessary for him to resort
to forced contributions from those under him to
carry on these changes, and to obviate the more
questionable methods he has to employ to provide
the needful funds for the everyday expenditure
his position entails.

Domestic slavery should be done away with ;
that system which gives rise to much cruelty, and
provides a cloak for kidnapping and its attendant
evils, as well as affording unwilling recruits to
the ranks of abandoned women. A beginning has
been made towards a betterment of this system.

Reforms in law and justice which have been
now and then mentioned as about to be inaugurated
should be carried out without further delay, and
prison reform should be more rapidly established.

Piracy should be put down with a strong hand,
for it renders travel unsafe, the life of the traveller
uncertain, and destroys confidence. As auxiliary

353

New Life in Old China

to thiSj the soldiers’ pay should be regular and
certain, the construction of railways pushed on,
to provide a rapid transit for foodstuffs in times
of famine ; the silted-up river-beds dredged, and
afforestation begun, to prevent the great devasta-
tion wrought by floods.

These are but a few of the urgent needs of
China, a few of the urgently required reforms,
some if not all of which are engaging, or will
shortly engage, the best attention of the now
thoroughly aroused and progressive Chinese.

354

CHAPTER XXVII

What Missionaries Have Done for
John Chinaman

N othing is more natural than that such a
country as China, occupying a twelfth of the
habitable globe, and such a people as the Chinese,
so full of interest in many ways, should attract the
attention of Christendom' and suggest to it imis-
sionary enterprise. This suggestion seems to have
been acted upon quite early in the Christian era.
According to the Nestorian tablet, dated a.d. 781,
and discovered accidentally in China in 1625, rpis-
sionaries of this Church arrived in that land in
505, though now scarcely a trace of them is left.
Since the year 1292, when John Corvino was
sent to China, the Roman Catholic Church has
made the country, more or less continuously, one
of its fields. It has now over 1,200 European
priests and well on for a million Chinese members.

The first Protestant agency to be r!epresented
in China was the London Missionary Society.
Robert Morrison reached Canton in September,
1807, and William Milne, his first associate, in

SS."?

What Missionaries Have Done

July, 1813. A sister society, the American Board
of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, followed
in 1837, the Netherlands Missionary Society
having in the meantime sent one man on to the
field. Since that period the agents of other
societies — British, American, and Continental — have
settled in the land.

At present, Protestant missionaries in the whole
Empire number about 4,500, residing at, or itine-
rating from, more than five hundred stations.
From three hundred miles beyond Mukden, the
capital of Manchuria, in the north, to Hong Kong,
Canton, and the island of Hainan in the south, from
Shanghai in the east to Chungking and the borders
of Tibet in the west, it is possible in many large,
and in some comparatively small, towns, to worship
with Christian congregations of Chinese, led by
their own Chinese clergy or pastors. At the same
time there are large tracts of country which remain
as yet untouched by missionary effort.

The agencies employed have been most varied
and multiplied. Medical work was started almost
at once, educational methods were adopted^, and
literature poured out of the press, while at the
same time evangelistic labours were carried on.
Thousands of books have been printed, either
original works or translations. As opportunities
offered and more facilities were granted, further
efforts were made to reach those hitherto un-
touched, such, for example, as woman’s work
amongst the families of not only the more acces-

356

Ctiristian Philanthropy

sible lower, classes of society but in the more
secluded homes of the well-to-do.

Of late years official life has been brought
within the field of labour, and not a few mandarins
have welcomed as honoured guests those whom'
many of their predecessors would have treated
with disdain and contempt. The desire to learn
English and modern science has opened many a
door iof access by which an entrance has been
gained for the dissemination of higher truths and
a fuller knowledge, not only of this life but of the
life which is to come.

Not the least interesting of the agencies
employed are what have been styled as ‘‘ by-
products of Christian work in China,” which
include such objects as work for the blind, for
lepers, for opium-smokers, for the deaf and dumb,
for the insane, for famine relief, for the rescue
of slave-girls, and against foot -binding and opium.
Considering the paucity of labourers in such an
immense field, the riesults have been surprising.
Nor are these results only to be measured by
the number, of communicants, which total between
200,000 and 300,000, for the indirect results have
been great, some patent at first sight, and others
whose hidden forces have not revealed themselves
fully as yet.

As we have already noted, the, new- birth of
this people is largely due to the missionary labours
of more than a hundred! years. Many things are
included in this r,eixaiss,ance of modern China, not

357 aa

What Missionaries Have Done

a few of which have been pointed out in; former
chapters. The presence of the missionary has
had much to do with the existence of the new
ideas which the new-born newspaper press gives
voice to. Native hospitals have had as their pro-
totypes mission hospitals, as well as those in
Hong-Kong, Shanghai, and Macao.

Confucianism has started preaching-halls in
imitation of the street chapel. Men of prominence,
though unconnected with mission churches, have
felt, unknown perhaps to themselves, the influ-
ence of Christianity on their lives and condfict,
and the proud scholar and haughty official also,
unconsciously to themselves, have be,en impressed
by the sight of Christianity in their midst. The
thirst for a modern education owes its inception
to mission schools and the instruction there
given.

The taste for a new literature is not only the
outcome of what Christianity provided through
missionaries, but , the means to print this litera-
ture owes its origin largely to^ missionaries : the
first font of type was cast for Morrison's dictionary,
and the Chinese type-case and the electrotype
process applied to the making of the matrices
for Chinese type were the invention of an American
missionary.

Even commerce, which at first thought the
advent of the missionary would be a hindrance,
has profited by the spread of enlightenment and
the desire for better things which follows

358

Resistance to Christianity

missionary work. Social life has improved as
the result of the establishment of schools and
the good influences resultant from the gathering
together of many in churches. The desire for
a constitutional government received its initial
impulse from contact with the Englishman and
American in the country, whose lives could not
but be coloured by the influences of their home
life in their native land, as regards political and
social ideals.

Therefore in estimating what Christianity and
missions have done and are doing for China and
the Chinese, mere statistics and figures are not
sufficient to give a full and complete idea of the
past results, the present progress, and the future
prospects.

The progress of Christianity in China has not
been as rapid as in some mission fields. Indeed
the obstacles to the introduction of any faith
propagated by foreigners were inevitably such as
to make the spread of the new religion a matter
of peril, and its progress necessarily and com-
paratively slow. At various periods in the distant
past the representatives of Christian missions were
expelled from the country. In modem times wide-
spread violence, such as that at the Boxer Rising
of 1900, and local outbreaks such as that which
wrought death to the girl martyrs of Ku-cheng,
have illustrated these dangers and difficulties. A
new period, however, opened with the gfeat
Reform Movement now so widely felt throughout

359

What Missionaries Have Done

China. This movement produced a new attitude
towards foreign teachers and foreign teaching. As
the science and literature of the West came into
demand, it was necessary to find teachers who
understood it and could make its treasures acces-
sible to the Chinese learner. The lead thus given
by authority and by persons of learning affected,
naturally enough, the general attitude of the
population.

The change has been, of course, most favour-
able to the advancement of Christianity, although
perhaps naturally it produced new dangers. For
whilst there began a more general disposition to
read the literature of Christianity, there also
became accessible, especially to the learned, litera,-
ture which attacked Christianity. In nothing, how-
ever, has the advance of Christian propaganda
under the new conditions been more remarkable
than in the development of Christian literature
work. The Bible Societies have also rendered
great service by publishing and circulating trans-
lations of the Holy Scriptures. The British and
Foreign Bible Society, which published Morrison
and Milne's translation of the New Testament as
early as 1814, has now nineteen Chinese versions
on its list, and of these versions it has published
over 18,500,000 copies. The American Bible
Society has published, since the commencement
of its work in 1843, about 12,000,000 copies in
some twelve different versions ; whilst the National
Bible Society of Scotland, which also publishes

360

Tract Society Work

several versions, has issued over 1 1,000,000 copies.
By far the larger part of these books have been
single Gospels and other separate books of the
Bible. These have been circulated in all the
provinces by means of Chinese colporteurs and
by itinerating missionaries, whilst depots for the
sale of Bibles and Testaments are to be found
in many of the principal cities.

Early in the nineteenth century the Religious
Tract Society of London began, at the request of
Morrison, to produce Christian tracts in Chinese.
The work thus originated has long been locally
organised through Tract and Book Societies
planted at Peking, Shanghai, Hankow, Canton,
Hong Kong, Chungking and Mukden. In addition,
the Christian Literature Society, with its head-
quarters at Shanghai, has, by books and periodicals,
made a wide appeal to the minds, more especially,
of the reading public in China.

How far or for how long these developments will
be permitted it is impossible to say. In China,
more perhaps than in any other land, it is the
unexpected which happens. The fact, however,
only lays the more emphasis upon the opportunity
offered to Christendom in a field both unique in
its extent and in its possibilities.

361

INDEX

Abuse, personal, 189
Acquisitiveness, 240
Adaptability, 70
All Souls' Day," 29
Amoy language, the, 136
Ancestral halls, 22
homes, 306
tablets, 22
worship, 24
Arithmetic, 264
Arnold, Matthew, quoted, 251
Atmosphere of towns, 170

B.A. DEGREE, the, 277
Babas, 67
Babies, 77

Bamboo, punishment with the>
121

Barbarians, 5
Barbers, 15
Bargaining, 285
Beards, 15
Bedrooms, 304
Beliefs, native, 331

Bible Societies, work of, 360
Bicycles, 218
Births, ceremony at, 75
Boat population, 199
Boat-women, 210
Book-hawkers, 218
Book of Mencius, quoted, 252
Books, 78

Books, ancient, 263

Bottles, 243

Braces and bits, 319

Breakfast, 167

Breeches, 235

Bribery, 108

Buddhism, 9, 337

Buddhist monks, travels of, 208

Burials, 28

Buttons, 99, 100

Calls of ceremony, 313
Cangue, the, 123
Cantonese language, 134, 136
Capital punishments, 120
Carving, 318

Index

Cash, a coin, 239
Caste, absence of, iii
Cats as food, 165
Chair-carrying, 215
Chair-coolies, 316
Changes, tendency to, 97
Chang Chow massacre, the,
126

Character of the people, 61,

64, 66,

Chaucer quoted, 14
Cheapness of food, 250
Chess, 314
Children, 72

desire for, 49
Child-labour, 327
Children’s songs, 78
Chimneys, 38

China Steam Navigation Com-
pany, 209
Chisels, 319, 322
Chopsticks, 160
Christian literature, spread of
361

Christianity, progress of, 360
Cities, condition of, 96
Clanship, 23
Classics, 48, 186

character of, 188
quoted, 252

Clothes, old, use of, 244
Clothing, 7, 225
Coal, 7
Coast-line, 2

Coffins, trouble about, 42
use of old, 246
Coifiure, women’s, 19

Coins, 239

Cold and heat in disease, 177
Collars, 225
Colour of clothing, 229
Comfort, absence of, 306
Communicants, number of, 387
Concessions, foreign, 345
Concubines, 46, 54
Confucius, 89
Congee, 162

Cooking, mode of, 165, 168
Coolies, 326
Corruption, official, 108
Corvino,' John, 355
Courtyards, 303
Cowper quoted, 306
Crime, 122
Curio-dealers, 218

Dead, influence of, 21, 28
Degradation from office, 114
Diet, native, 6
Dinner, customs at, 163
Disease, diagnosis of, 175
Divination, 43
Divorce, 55
Doctors, 172, 182
Dogs as food, 165
Doors, 301

Dragon Boat Feast, the, 280
Drainage, 246
Dress of mandarins, 99
Drink, 158
Druggists’ shops, 181
Drugs, the foreign, 144
Drunkenness, 166
Dynasties, the ancient, 91

Index

Ear-rings, 237
Education, 78, 262
changes in, 272
history of, 271
Educational reform, 187
Elimination of words, 138
Emigration, 61, 64
Emigration, spread of, 260
Emperor, the first, 91
Employment of women, 314
Entrance- halls, 301
Excursion boats, 204
Extravagance, marriage, 55

Fans, mandarins’, 104
Farming, 324
Fashions, 236

Father’s power over his chil-
dren, 73

Ferry-boats, 202
Feudal age, 9, 90
Fiction, 190
Figures, use of, 264
Filial piety, 24
Fish, 7

abundance of, 207
sellers of, 283
Fishing-smacks, 207
Five Classics,” the, 94
Flesh-eating in disease, 179
Floating traders, 201
Flower-boats, 205
Food, 158

in prisons, 119
Foot-warmers, 305
Footwear, 234

Foreign marriages, danger of,
310

Foundling hole at Chow Chow
Fu, 74

Fruit-trees, 169
Fuel, 7
Fu-hsi, 89
Fung-Shui, 32
Funeral processions, 294
Furniture, 247

Gala-days, 315
Gambling, 314
Gardens, 288

Gemmeous Ruler, the, 334
Geography, study of, 265
Geomancy, 36
Ghosts, belief in, 331
Giants, belief in, 88
God of Fire, the, 333

of the Locality, the, 336
of Thunder, story of, 241
Goddess of Lightning, story of,
241

Goddess of Mercy, the, 334
Government, 8, 113
Graduates, number of, 277
Grass as fuel, 169
Grave at Chao chow fu, 21
Graves, position of, 28
influence of,

Great Learning^ quoted, 47
Great Wall, 329
Guide to Knowledge^ quoted,
267

Guilds, 324

Index

Hades, Ten Courts of, 338
Hair, 12
boys’, 20
women’s, 19
Hairpins, 238
Hakka language, the, 136
Hakkas, the, 15
Hand-labour, 321
Hats, 237

Historical books, 94
History of the past, 86
Houses, 38

cleaning of, 300
description of, 298
Horses, scarcity of, 321
Houseboats, 203
Hwang- ti, 89

IDEOGRAPHY of language, 191
Idol festivals, 339
processions, 295
Illiteracy, 141
Image-maker, paper, 81
Immorality, 59, 63
Indoor life, 297
Infant mortality 84
Infanticide, 72
Irrigation, 247
Islands, 2
Isolation, 4

Jackets, 225
Jade ornaments, 237
Jealousy, 56
Jinrickshaws, 2x2
Junks, 207

Keeoo, 138

Kindness to children, 76
Kings of the Ghosts, courts of,

30

Kissing, 54
Knickerbockers, 234

Ladders, 321
Languages,, 13 1
study of, 264
Lantern processions, 296
Lanterns, 299
Lao-tsz, 90

Tsz, quoted, 253
Laundrying, 233
Laws, II 6
Lay She-Chun, 174
Leprosy, 56
Libations, 332
Libraries, 197, 312
Literati, iii
Literature, 8
Lo Tsz, 9
Long robes, 230
Luggage, 213
Lunch, 167

Macao dialects, the, 142
Malay States, Chinamen in the,
67

Malays, 67

Manchus, conquest by the, 13
Manchuria, wild tribes of, 4
Mandarins, 99
dress of, 231
tenure of office, 112

Index

Mandarins {continued ) —
pomp of, 103
processions of, 291
the language, 112
Marco Polo, 10
Marine-hawkers, 243
Marketing, 282
Marriage processions, 292
Marriage by proxy, 57
Marriages, 26, 45, 310
Marrying the dead, 58
Massacres, 126
Massage, 17
Mat sheds, 320
Matches, 349
Materia Medica, the, 174
Maturity, age of, 59
Meals, manners at, 160, 312
Medical Students, 183
writers, 173

Medicines, peculiar, x8o
Melon seeds, 163
Memory, use of, 266
Mencius, 90

Middle dialects, the, 138
Military mandarins, power of,
107

Middle Kingdom, the, i
Milk, 166
Milk-names, 75
Milne, William, 355
Missions, prejudice against, 341
history of, 355

Mohammedan rebellions, 127
Moles on the face, 16
Monasteries, 340
Morality, 56, 6t, 63

Morrison, Robert, 355
Mothers- in-law, 53
Mountains, 2
Mourning, 18, 300, 308
Moustaches, 15
Mutton, 165

Names, 76
Naval uniform, 114
Navigation, river, 204
Navy, 351
Nestorians, 355
New Year, the, 80
Newspapers, 198, 350
Novels, 93
Nunneries, 340
Nursery songs, 78

Ocean Dragon King, the, 334
Odes, use of, 192
Odes for Children^ quoted, 268
‘^Oh ! Cord of Thoughts of
Love," quoted, 195
Oil-men, 283
Old custom," 24
Opium, smoking, 148
effects of, 152
history of, 145
question, the, 144
statistics of, 155
Outdoor life, 280

Pagoda, story of a, 36
Paper offerings, 29
Parasites, 232

367

Index

Passage-boats, 206
Patience of woirkers, 316
Patriotism, 346
Penal code, the, 116
Physicalfeatures of the country,

I

Pickle-hawker, the, 83
Pillars, trouble about, 43
Ping-pom man, the, 80
Pirates, 224
Planes, 319

Pleasures of coolies, 327
Poems quoted, 193
Poetry, 191, 192
Police, 352
Polygamy, 45
Poon Kwu, a giant, 88
Population, 3

on the waters, 199
Pork, 162
Poverty, 244, 323
Printing, use of, 189
Prisons, 119
Processions, 290
Promotion in office, 114
Protestant missionaries, num-
ber of, 356

Pulse, examination of the, 176
Punishments, 120
outdoor, 291
Purgatory, 30

Queues, 13
Rafts, 210

Railways, 10, 212, 223

Railways, opposition to, 34
Rats as food, 165
Rebellions, 124
Reform, progress of, 342
Religion, 8

Religious Tract Society, work
of, 361

Restaurants, 162
Rice, 159

Rice-field worms, 166
Rice fish, 283, 325
Roads, 219
Robbers, 224
Robes of mandarins, 99
Roman Catholics, 355
Routes to China, 10

Sailors, 208
Sampans, 200
Saws, 319

Scaffold-builders, 320
Scent, 20
Scholarship, 220
Schools, 78, 276
Sedan-chairs, 216
Self-centred, 5
Sewerage, 246
Sexagenary Cycle, the, 338
Shaving, 16
Shen-nung, 89
Shoes, 235
Shops, 279

Shrimp-catcher, the, 202
Shun, a sage, 89
Shuttlecocks, 287
Siberian Railway, lO

368

Index

Silver currency, 249
Slave-girls, 83
Small-pox, 85
Smoke, 171
Smuggling, 205
So Toong-poh, 193, 350
Souls, the three, 22
Spires, objection to, 40
Spirits, belief in, 331
Spoons and forks, 162
Steamers, 209
Steeples, objection to, 40
Stockings, 234
Street cries, 215
Street-sellers, 284
Streets, appearance of, 216
Stools, 308
Strangulation, 120
Students, 71
Sweetmeats, 82
Swords, loi

Tax Ping rebellion, the, 124
Tao Teh King, quoted, 253
Taoism, 337

Telegraphs, opposition to, 33

Temples, 337

Tenure of office, 112

Theatricals, 281

lliings Chinese^ quoted, 190

Thriftiness, 326

Tigers, 32

Tibet, 4

To Find a Heart that’s True,”
quoted, 194
Tolerance, 337

Tombs, worship at, 28
Tones in language, 136
Tools, 319
Torture, 12 x

Tower at the City of Fragrant
Hills, 35
Toys, 79

Transmigration of souls, 30
Travel, modes of, 212
Travellers, 71

Treaty ports, China, men in
the, 69

Trees, destruction of, 168
Troubles of official life, 105
Trousers, 225
Tsun Shih Hwang, 90
Tung Chi, Emperor, burial of,
41

Vaccination, 85
Vegetables, 284
Vegetarians, 165
Vendettas, 128
Vices, 63

Voyagers, ancient, ii

Waiacing, delight in, 286
War, ancient views of, 252
'^Warrior Bold, A,” quoted,

193

Wars, feudal, X90
Washing, 233
Waste, hatred of, 241
Water-supply, 350
Weddings, 50

Index

Wheelbarrow, 221
Whipping, public, 123
Widows, 58
Wine, 166

Wives, position of, 45
Women abroad, 67
dress of, 235
Wood as fuel, 169
Wooden collar, the, 123
Work of mandarins, 105
Workmen, 316
Worship at tombs, 28

Writing, reverence of, 227, 248
Wu Tsuy quoted, 254

Yang Tsz Kiang, the, i
Yau, a sage, 89
Yeep, Viceroy, 104
Yellow jacket the, 10, 233
Peril, the, 256
River, the, i
Yong, 177
Yii, a sage, 89
Yum, 177

ONWIN BROTHERS, LIMITED, THE GRESHAM PRESS, WOKING AND LONDON

JAMES eHALMERS

His Autotoiograpli^ aod Letters.

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London ; THE RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCiEXX

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